The Institute for Reforming Government is demanding answers on just what went on during the Department of Public Instruction’s secretive getaway in the Dells
The Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) is demanding answers from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction over its handling of a $368,885 taxpayer-funded workshop held in June 2024 at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells.
IRG accuses DPI of violating Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law by conducting the event in secret. The multiday “standard-setting workshop” involved an 88-member committee of handpicked educators and DPI staff tasked with advising on new performance benchmarks (cut scores) for the Wisconsin Forward Exam in English Language Arts and Mathematics.
The scandal, first broken by the Dairyland Sentinel earlier this month after DPI refused to provide records for more than a year, prompted the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to withold funds.
According to the Dairyland Sentinel, DPI required participants to sign broad non-disclosure agreements that prohibited sharing details of any discussions—not just proprietary test materials—potentially exceeding legal limits for protecting exam security. The agency did not provide public notice of the meetings, hold them in open session, or fully comply with transparency requirements under Wisconsin’s Open Records Law.
“The longer DPI fails to answer basic questions about its secret, taxpayer-funded retreat, the deeper the hole it digs for itself,” said Jake Curtis, IRG’s General Counsel and Director of its Center for Investigative Oversight. “IRG intends to pursue every available avenue until the public obtains the transparency it deserves and urges the Legislature to demand answers from DPI.”
IRG alleges that this secrecy and potential violations of law could lead a court to invalidate the newly adopted exam standards, which DPI is accused of using to mask abysmal student performance across Wisconsin’s public schools.
The longer DPI fails to answer basic questions about its secret, taxpayer-funded retreat, the deeper the hole it digs for itself.
Jake Curtis
The scandal exploded in early February after the Dairyland Sentinel finally received partial records more than a year after its initial public records request. In those records, DPI confirmed the $368,885 expenditure but provided no itemized receipts for staff time, food, travel, lodging, or potential resort perks, making it impossible to determine how much taxpayer money went toward amenities, alcohol, or waterpark access.
Immediately after the report was published, the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee paused the release of $1 million in operational funding for DPI over concerns about what legislators called the “questionable use of funds.
