Conservative nonprofit files lawsuit seeking to scrap state testing standards

The Institute for Reforming Government, a conservative nonprofit, is suing the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction alleging that it violated open meetings law with a standards setting meeting two years ago and is requesting that state testing standards be voided. 

The lawsuit centers on a four-day testing standards-setting meeting held in June 2024 at Chula Vista, a water park resort in the Wisconsin Dells. The meeting brought together 88 educators and DPI staff to discuss and help set the new standards for the Forward Exam, the standardized test that Wisconsin third-graders through eighth-graders take each year.

Republican lawmakers and conservatives have scrutinized the agency over the cost of the meeting, nondisclosure agreements that participants signed and for being held behind closed doors. DPI has said that the cost of the work done related to the meeting was in line with typical costs, that NDAs were necessary because the test materials that were being reviewed would be used in live tests and that the meeting was not subject to open meetings laws.

IRG had first filed a complaint in Adams County in April. The Adams County district attorney did not file charges within 20 days, so the organization has turned to a lawsuit. It is being represented by the Wisconsin Transparency Project. 

IRG is asking that a judge declare that DPI violated the law and void any actions DPI took, including the adoption of new state testing standards, as a result of the recommendations made by those at the meeting.

Jake Curtis, general counsel at IRG, said in a statement that “the DA’s silence left us no choice but to pursue legal action — Wisconsin families deserve to know how and why decisions about their children’s education are being made behind closed doors.” 

“DPI cannot lower academic standards in secret and simply expect parents and students to accept the outcome. Taxpayers funded this process, but DPI shut them out,” Curtis said. 

Tom Kamenick, the president and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, said in a statement that a committee like the one organized by DPI has to follow state open meetings law.

“Compliance is not difficult. Put up a public notice and then tell people they are welcome to attend and see the work being done,” Kamenick said. “It’s a few simple steps.” 

Chris Bucher, spokesperson for DPI, said in an email that he could not comment in detail due to ongoing litigation, adding in a statement that “the DPI has openly and transparently participated in legislative hearings related to this matter, which the Republican co-chair of a legislative committee called ‘routine.’ However, more than two years after the fact, a special interest group with a well-documented political agenda continues to recycle unfounded accusations, diverting public resources and agency time away from the work that matters most: supporting Wisconsin students, educators and schools.”

DPI leaders previously told lawmakers that the meeting was not subject to open meetings law because it was conducted by the vendor it contracts with for the Forward Exam, Data Recognition Corporation (DRC). He said it is a private company not a governmental body subject to Wisconsin’s open meeting laws.

“DRC is not a government body. It is a private contractor in the same way that Microsoft is not a government body, Apple’s not a government body. People who do business with the Department of Public Instruction — those are contractors who perform a service for it,” Rich Judge, an assistant state superintendent, said when complaints first surfaced.