(The Center Square) – An audit is expected to be ordered of Wisconsin’s educational license program as Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly will appear before the state’s Joint Audit Committee at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
The agenda for the meeting includes a public hearing on the proposed audit and a follow-up executive session.
“Superintendent Underly and DPI failed at their most basic oversight role: to ensure our kids are safe at school,” Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, told The Center Square. “Recent reporting revealed a significant lack of accountability in how DPI tracks teachers and school officials accused of sexual misconduct with children.
“This audit will attempt to bring to light what DPI has tried to hide, and ensure we can keep Wisconsin’s students safe from predators at school.”
Underly was not present at last week’s meeting of the Assembly Committee on Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency related to a report showing that DPI hid 200 sexual misconduct and grooming accusations since 2018.
Underly was also invited to an informational hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Education on Tuesday but there is no agenda yet for that meeting.
“As the state’s highest-ranking education official, let’s hope she’s ready to provide a full public accounting and answer our questions at these hearings,” Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, said in his Friday newsletter. “So far, her silence is deafening—as is Governor Evers, who led the agency for years.”
The audit would examine how DPI handles complaints against teachers as it investigates related to state teacher licenses.
Deputy State Superintendent Tom McCarthy said that DPI requires that license revocations be made permanent if teachers choose to have their license revoked instead of going through an investigation.
McCarthy admitted that process was not in statute nor could they prevent a teacher from later asking for the license to be reinstated. He also said that there are jobs within schools, like some paraprofessional roles, that do not require licenses.
Questions have also arisen about when individual school districts must inform DPI of issues and communication with law enforcement in those cases to ensure teachers are not able to simply move districts to avoid accusations of sexual misconduct.
“My ongoing frustration with our state’s DPI is that students continue to be a low priority in an effort to protect bad teachers,” Kapenga wrote. “This report, unfortunately, highlights it to a new level, but doesn’t change what I have been saying for years: our education system is broken because of the teacher union leadership and needs to be completely gutted and restructured. Kids are no longer being taught how to think, but rather what to think.”
