“I don’t know where that money is going to come from, but I know that I can’t afford to pay for it out of pocket, so I might be looking for somewhere else to go to school,” finance sophomore Artina Tyus said.

The scholarship provides up to $4,000 for high school graduates who complete at least two years of post-secondary education in Michigan. Qualified through the Michigan Merit Exam, students who graduated in or after 2007 would be affected by the cut. Cutting the scholarship would save the state $140 million. Officials made the move shortly after a hearing where people testified about their impact.

Tyus’ parents qualify for loans but will not cosign, so taking out loans to make up for the money she will be losing is not an option.

“It’s all on me,” she said.

The Senate-passed bill likely will go to a conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions, which could happen as soon as July, state Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, said. The state House’s bill, passed April 2, did not cut the scholarship and called for limited cuts to state funded financial aid.

Even though the bill passed in the Senate, state Rep. Joan Bauer, D-Lansing, said there are more steps before the fate of the scholarship is decided.

“When we have this conference committee, the head of the Senate, the head of the House and the governor’s budget director, they sit down,” she said. “They are really the ones who will then say to this conference committee, ‘Here’s how much you have to spend on higher education.’”

State senators said the cuts are tough, but something that has to be done to balance the state’s budget deficit.

“As a state and as a state budget, we are still putting a lot of money into universities,” Jelinek said. “We still support students, but they are not getting the personal support of $4,000.”

Other senators voted against the bill and supported amendments to restore funding for the Michigan Promise Scholarship and tuition grants.

“Those young men and women still deserve an opportunity to go to college,” state Sen. Tupac Hunter, D-Detroit, said. “They shouldn’t be shut out because their state won’t support them.”

Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration continues to support the scholarship and opposes efforts to eliminate it, said Tiffany Brown, a spokeswoman for Granholm.

“Clearly we have some difficult decisions to make,” Brown said. “We’re working with lawmakers.”

Every area of the state is experiencing cuts, state Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, said. Cuts might be even deeper in the future, he said.

“There very likely could be further cuts depending on the state’s income,” he said.

The cuts came only hours after a hearing in which testimonials were given from students and officials affected by the cuts. The hearing was held before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education on Tuesday at the Capitol.

“We’re gathering more information so that we have a clearer understanding of what the cuts would do to higher education,” Bauer said.