Tiffany calls for audit of DPI over Wis. Dells conference

U.S. Rep. and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany is calling for a full audit of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction after records showed the agency spent nearly $370,000 on a four-day conference at a Wisconsin Dells resort while working on changes to state student proficiency standards.

Publisher Brian Fraley of The Dairyland Sentinel reported and broke the story. According to The Dairyland Sentinel, the line-item cost of the workshop totaled $368,885.

Tiffany called the conference a junket and said the result was lower standards.

“It’s clear DPI [Department of Public Instruction] needs a full audit,” Tiffany said. “Their priorities are completely misplaced if they can waste nearly $400,000 on a water park junket to lower standards while claiming they need more funding. It took them over a year to respond to an open records request, and taxpayers should never have to wait that long for basic transparency.” 

The gubernatorial hopeful called on every Democratic candidate for governor to join him in demanding the audit.

“Transparency should be bipartisan,” he said. “As governor, I will root out waste, conduct full audits, and ensure taxpayers know exactly where their money is going. I will also raise our education standards after DPI lowered them to mask the failure of our school system where 69 percent of Wisconsin 4th graders cannot read at grade level.”

Tiffany took aim at Gov. Tony Evers, too, saying he had vetoed legislation to restore the higher standards.

“That bill will be signed into law when I am governor,” he said. “We cannot accept failure for our kids any longer, and we must demand accountability.”

Tiffany wasn’t the only Republican responding to last week’s report.

On Tuesday, the legislature temporarily paused $1 million earmarked for DPI operations. Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) removed the funding from its agenda, saying they wanted time to review the reported use of the funds.

“DPI’s wasteful and expensive resort junket to strategize how it can hide school performance levels from the public raises questions about DPI’s spending,” state Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Gillett) said in a statement to Fox11 in Green Bay. “The Legislature is pumping the brakes to conduct necessary government oversight into how $368,885 in taxpayer funds were wasted on this retreat, and bringing greater scrutiny to the officials responsible for spending our tax dollars.”

In another statement to Fox11, DPI said it was being targeted.

“We are deeply disappointed in the delay from the JFC,” the agency stated. “We have been in contact with members and staff leading up to Tuesday, indicating they were set to approve our request. The department was singled out for a set aside of 10 percent of its operating budget, and without that money, will need to consider layoffs, which will impact our ability to investigate educator wrongdoing, license teachers, pay choice schools, and operate the agency.”

The conference took place in June 2024 at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells. It was described as a “standard-setting workshop” focused on redefining what it means for students to be proficient in reading and math. 

Tiffany said this week that hand-picked participants were asked to rubber-stamp DPI’s plan to lower student proficiency standards.

Open records dispute

The Dairyland Sentinel filed an open records request in January 2025 seeking DPI documents related to the standard-setting process. The Sentinel reported that DPI only provided a technical summary at the time and did not provide additional records until this month, after the Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) sent the agency a formal demand letter. 

“After a year of stonewalling by DPI, the team at the Institute for Reforming Government turned up the heat and got results,” Fraley reported. 

Jake Curtis, general counsel and director of IRG’s Center for Investigative Oversight, said transparency was at the center of the effort.

“Bottom line, when the state government hides or delays access to records, we push back,” Curtis said. “When the public deserves answers, we work to get them. This time, that pressure paid off. The public has a right to know what its government is doing and IRG will continue to hold public officials accountable for failing to produce public records the public has a right to review. We applaud lawmakers for pausing the money earmarked for DPI until they can dig into what happened at the water park.”

According to The Sentinel, the newly released records included 17 pages of documents that had not been previously disclosed. It reported that 88 educators and staff participated in the June 2024 workshop. 

“The documents concern the ‘standard setting’ process used to redefine what it means for a Wisconsin student to be ‘proficient’ in reading and math,” The Sentinel reported. “Following a formal demand letter from IRG last month, the Department of Public Instruction late Monday released 17 pages of internal recruitment emails, applications, and non-disclosure agreements. Many of these records were withheld during the agency’s original response in February 2025, which at the time only provided a pre-packaged 324-page technical summary.”

The Sentinel’s report highlighted the non-disclosure agreements.

“It is understandable that student information and the answers to the tests be kept confidential,” The Sentinel reported. “But the Non Disclosure Agreement conferees were under was far more encompassing. Participants had to agree that they ‘will not share …workshop feedback, or workshop recommendations on any media, including social media.’”

The level of secrecy surrounding the workshop was notable for a public agency, The Sentinel reported.

“This was not merely about protecting copyrighted test questions: it was a broad gag order on the very deliberations used to redefine student success in Wisconsin,” the report stated. “DPI officials confirmed there are no recordings and didn’t provide requested meeting minutes from the event. Participants were required to leave all notes in the meeting room, where they were collected by facilitators.”

The lack of itemized receipts has also drawn criticism. While DPI confirmed the total cost of $368,885, the agency did not provide receipts for staff time, food, travel, or lodging, according to The Sentinel. 

Adding fuel to the fire of the conference’s total cost was its purpose — DPI’s revision of state proficiency benchmarks, which Republicans say lowered standards. Under the new state standards, proficiency rates jumped 12 percent, resulting in a majority of students now “meeting expectations,” according to The Sentinel. But critics argue the changes lowered the bar to make performance averages appear more favorable.

Meanwhile, IRG indicated additional transparency efforts are forthcoming, including records requests directed at Evers and attorney general Josh Kaul.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.