Gov. Tony Evers signed legislation last week that will allow high schoolers to gain direct admission into the Universities of Wisconsin if they place highly in their graduating class. Under the bill, seniors who place in the top 10% of their high school’s graduating class could gain admission to the UW system school of their choice, except for UW-Madison, where those in the top 5% would be guaranteed admission. Fond du Lac School District superintendent Dr. Jeff Fleig testified in Madison in favor of the bill. “Other major research institutions that are not in the state of Wisconsin actively recruit our students and offer a lot of money for them to attend,” Fleig told WFDL news. “For years you never really know if you’re going to get into UW-Madison. You can have a 4.0 (GPA), a 31 ACT (score), you’re waiting until mid-December or January while you could be missing out on scholarship opportunities from other institutions.” The legislation initially drew pushback from the UW system about the ability for local school boards to establish a graduate-ranking system, one of the requirements in the bill. UW-Madison also raised concern about its impact on the admissions process at the flagship university. Tweaks to the bill addressed those concerns, and support from the state’s public universities was contingent on the Legislature passing a series of pay raises for UW system workers, as well as funding for key building projects and other policy priorities.
