(The Center Square) – The Institute for Reforming Government is joining a push to get Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction to release information related to changes in its benchmarks for the Forward Exam.
IRG sent a demand letter related to the request to DPI on Thursday.
DPI was found by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty to have lowered school report card cut points in 2020-21, changed the labels on those in 2023-24 and lowered the cut points again that year as well.
In response, DPI formed a committee, held meetings and adjusted standards again last year.
But the Dairyland Sentinel requested internal communications, analyses and meeting documentation related to the Forward Exam benchmarks on Jan. 21, 2025 and still has not received those records.
The delay is similar to when Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. waited more than six months to release documents to The Center Square related to more than $160,000 in expenses for a trade trip to Europe.
DPI acknowledged the request by sending Dairyland Sentinel reference to a list of nearly 100 “experts” that Supt. Jill Underly claimed worked on the revised standards but has yet to reveal who the expert were, how they were chosen, where they met, whether non-disclosure agreements were used and the full cost to taxpayers including staff time, travel, lodging, food and materials.
“Transparency delayed is transparency denied,” Jacob J. Curtis, IRG General Counsel and Director of the Center for Investigative Oversight, said in a statement. “Wisconsin law is clear: records must be provided ‘as soon as practicable and without delay.’ Keeping the public in the dark for a year is not just a bureaucratic failure, it is a violation of the law. We are hopeful that DPI will choose transparency over litigation.”
