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(The Center Square) – The Dairyland Sentinel is asking the Wisconsin Department of Justice to intervene in what it believes is an unfulfilled public records request.
The publication has continued to request a contract between the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and Forward Exam test contractor Data Recognition Corp. related to a standards-setting conference in the summer of 2024 in the Wisconsin Dells that would have justified DRC’s use of non-disclosure agreements with conference attendees.
The contract was first requested in January 2025 and again in February. Dairyland Sentinel Publisher Brian Fraley asked DOJ to intervene in the matter based upon guidance that Attorney General Josh Kaul published last year.
“DPI has tried to convince reporters that this issue has been settled,” Fraley told The Center Square. “It has not.”
Fraley’s initial report on the conference led Wisconsin’s Joint Committee on Finance to delay a $1 million funding request to DPI with the committee later releasing $1.75 million to the department after the committee asked questions about the conference.
DPI then released a list breaking down specific costs to WisPolitics, not to Dairyland Sentinel or The Center Square.
Fraley said that he initially filed the request after reading DPI Superintendent Jill Underly's guest column noting that changes to the state’s Forward Exam standards were the result of a 100-person advisory committee, not decisions made by DPI.
“This is the most impactful education policy change in a decade and it’s clouded with secrecy,” Fraley said.
“This is a massive public policy decision that has impacted every single parent of school-aged kids in Wisconsin, whether they attend public school or not, because every single parent is empowered to determine what’s the best school for their kids and one of the factors they use is test scores and how they relate to the state benchmark.”
Fraley said that there is likely to be more that will still come from the meeting, including the Institute for Reforming Government’s belief that the committee constitutes an ad hoc committee, meaning the meetings should have been noticed, public and minutes should have been kept.
IRG recently requested that a special committee be formed to look into the conference.
Fraley then noted that a later DPI conference on federal funding advised school district that they could use federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding to attend the conference, also held in the Wisconsin Dells.
He cited federal uniform grant guidance stating that grant spending must be “necessary and reasonable” and that the federal government could audit local school districts for that use of IDEA funds.
