Wisconsin Merit Scholarships Proposed With Senate Bill 700

A new proposal from Wisconsin, Senate Bill 700, would established Wisconsin Merit Scholarships:
http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2017/related/proposals/sb700

These stipends will be defined as:
"...Merit-based annual $5,000 scholarships to students enrolled in two-year or four-year UW schools who have graduated from an in-state high school..."

The means of determining "merit" will be [with parenthetical clarification by SenatorJPO]:
"The bill requires the Board of Regents to determine student merit [or narrowly defined: academic ability] based on performance on standardized college entrance examinations [e.g., ACT and/or SAT] and, if applicable, cumulative high school grade point averages."

WPR Rebuttal examines the implications of underwriting more students to enroll in the UW System.

The extent to which these scholarships improve a student's marketability in their post-graduation work search remains to be seen:

While the prestige of a local scholarship might help you get hired as Walmart stocker, it won't necessarily give you the job offer over a more-experienced worker when contending for a professional role, such as program-and-policy analyst.

The overall effect of these scholarships should therefore be less noticeable than the bill sponsors intend. The "field-leveling" desired will all-but-disappear when the scholar-grads and non-scholar-grads compete for actual work after degree conferral.

With further public comments by T.J. Cool, Ben Giles, and Frank Rojas.