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Largest Scholarship in State History
Proposed |
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$5,000 scholarship would be
merit-based for WI residents only. |
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MADISON…Today, State Representative
Tyler August (R-Lake Geneva), State Senator Steve Nass
(R-Whitewater), and State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk
announced their proposal to create the Wisconsin Merit
Scholarship. The scholarships, set at $5,000, will be
available based solely on merit to Wisconsin residents
to attend UW System schools. |
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“Our legislation will create the largest scholarship in
state history valued at $5 million when fully
implemented,” said August. “The scholarship will be
significant, at $5,000 per student using no newly
allocated tax dollars. I am happy to report that the
plan has the full support of UW System President Ray
Cross.” |
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The scholarship will be determined by the UW Board of
Regents based on university admission test scores (i.e.
ACT, SAT) and high school GPA. The legislators pointed
out that students already have access to billions in
need-based aid. The only other state-funded merit based
program is the Wisconsin Excellence Scholarship, set at
$2170 and is available to the top graduate in each high
school. |
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“It was important the bill targets students based on
merit,” said Nass. “We want to keep our best and
brightest here in Wisconsin and this bill gives the UW
System that tool.” |
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The funding for the scholarship bill comes from the sale
of Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL) lands
to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Constitutionally, the BCPL is tasked with selling all
lands given to it by the federal government at
statehood. The BCPL has already sold 98% of the land and
this bill would sell the remaining 2% of land to the DNR.
The land, almost entirely located in northern Wisconsin,
is estimated to be worth around $80 million dollars.
Specifically, the bill directs $10 million per year from
the Stewardship Program to be transferred to the Normal
School Fund (NSF) at the BCPL to purchase the land over
8 years. The NSF is constitutionally required to
distribute any earnings from the fund to the UW System. |
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“As a commissioner of the BCPL, this plan finally allows
us to fulfill our constitutional duty to sell our lands
to benefit the UW System” said Adamczyk. “This is a
no-brainer as we create a $5 million annual scholarship
not only by selling our lands as constitutionally
required, but also by doing so without making the
taxpayers pay for it.” |
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When fully implemented, the NSF would have over $100
million dollars in it. Assuming a conservative 5% rate
of return on the fund, there would be $5 million
available annually for scholarships to be awarded by the
UW System. In comparison, the NSF is only returning
$300,000 to the UW System – this would grow that amount
15 times larger. With scholarships set at $5,000 it
estimated that over 1,000 students will be able to take
advantage of these scholarships. |
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August and Nass stated they are circulating the bill for
cosponsors this week and hope to introduce the bill by
the end of the week. |
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