The Wisconsin State Assembly passed Assembly Bill 370 Tuesday, sending it to the Senate for the next level of approval, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

The bill would allow high school students in the top 10% of their class to receive guaranteed admission to a Universities of Wisconsin institution or technical college of the applicant’s choice, with the top 5% guaranteed spot at UW-Madison.

An amendment to the bill clarified that a combination of GPA and test scores designates class ranking, because originally, there was no standard for class ranking, which can vary from school to school, according to Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire).

The bill passed 63-34, with all Democrats voting against the bill and all Republicans voting for it, according to the Wisconsin State Legislature website.

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The vague wording of the bill was a concern to Democrats, Rep. LaKeshia Myers (D-Milwaukee) said.

“Is there a certain percentage of seats that are available?” Myers said. “We don’t know how many seats are available for each freshman class in the UW System … Does that mean with every high school senior within the top 10% of their classes automatically gets accepted into the UW [system], or does it matter if their preferred campus was Green Bay, or Lacrosse or Stevens Point? [The bill] does not specifically say that, it just says into the UW system.”

Myers also believes this bill is an indirect response to the diversity programming on UW campuses, which includes programs like UW-Madison’s PEOPLE program.

According to Emerson, policies and bills regarding the Universities of Wisconsin have turned into a culture war.

“Another thing to remember is what it takes to graduate from high school, and what it takes to get into the University of Wisconsin-Madison are not the same requirement,” Emerson said.

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In contrast to the “guaranteed admissions” bill, the direct admissions program being implemented by UW is more along the lines of what supporting higher education should be in Wisconsin, according to Emerson.

Working on programs that keep Wisconsin high school students in Wisconsin for higher education is what the legislation should be working towards, Emerson said.

According to Emerson, only 17% of money used to fund the university comes from taxpayer dollars, which means that the legislators should not be able to dictate everything the universities do.

“There’s a lot of stuff that university does that we shouldn’t have access to… I think we just need to trust the professionals that we hire in the job that they do,” Emerson said.