{"id":14975,"date":"2025-01-28T17:50:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T18:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14975"},"modified":"2025-01-28T19:43:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T19:43:48","slug":"what-are-they-hiding-dpi-fails-to-fulfill-irg-public-records-requests-on-mps-financial-mismanagement-for-7-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14975","title":{"rendered":"What Are They Hiding?: DPI Fails to Fulfill IRG Public Records Requests on MPS Financial Mismanagement for 7 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/what-are-they-hiding-dpi-fails-to-fulfill-irg-public-records-requests-on-mps-financial-mismanagement-for-7-months\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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For Immediate Release:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

January 28, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n

What Are They Hiding?: DPI Fails to Fulfill IRG Public Records Requests on MPS Financial Mismanagement for 7 Months<\/b><\/p>\n

Delafield, Wis.<\/b> \u2013 The Institute for Reforming Government announced on Tuesday that Wisconsin\u2019s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has failed to fulfill an IRG Public Records Request from June 2024 requesting records surrounding MPS\u2019s financial mismanagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June 2024, the presidential race was still Biden versus Trump, the Silver Dollar in Madison still stood, some expected the Chicago Bears to have a great season, and the Department of Public Instruction was talking sternly about revelations of fiscal mismanagement within Milwaukee Public Schools. Since then, Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris and started his second term as president, an entire college football season has come and gone, the Chicago Bears went 5-12, and three candidates are running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

WHAT HAPPENED:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

DPI has not fulfilled a public records surrounding the fiscal mismanagement of MPS for 7 months:<\/b> DPI has yet to fulfill a June 17, 2024, records request<\/a> from IRG concerning their role in MPS\u2019 late financial reports. <\/span>Seven months later, it raises the question, what are they hiding?<\/b><\/p>\n

THE QUOTE:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Institute for Reforming Government is calling on the Department of Public Instruction to immediately release IRG\u2019s requested records,\u201d said <\/span>Jake Curtis, General Counsel and the Director of IRG\u2019s Center of Investigative Oversight.<\/b> \u201cContinuing to keep the public in the dark surrounding MPS\u2019s financial mismanagement is unacceptable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

WHY IT MATTERS:<\/b><\/p>\n

DPI\u2019s correction-plan deadlines are apparently meaningless:<\/b> MPS recently <\/span>revealed<\/span><\/a> that it had blown by finance deadlines DPI <\/span>had reset<\/span><\/a> for them after they failed to meet previous deadlines throughout 2023 and 2024. It is now 2025, and DPI still does not have MPS\u2019 final paperwork. MPS is now scheduled to miss federal 2024 audit <\/span>deadlines<\/span><\/a>, and this backlog has put 2025 compliance at risk. <\/span>What has DPI done to hold MPS accountable?<\/b><\/p>\n

Governor Evers\u2019 requested audits are MIA:<\/b> After statewide outcry on the overdue financials, Governor Tony Evers <\/span>initiated<\/span><\/a> two audits of MPS to prevent future crises. The last anyone <\/span>heard<\/span><\/a>, the operations audit was to be completed in January and the academics audit had not begun. As Governor Evers said, the audits are \u201ccritical if we are going to identify problems in order to inform future conversations about solutions.\u201d <\/span>Has DPI ensured these \u201ccritical\u201d audits will get done by May?<\/b><\/p>\n

WHAT\u2019S NEXT: <\/b>IRG will continue to drive reform in Milwaukee, both through accountability and policy support like literacy and teacher apprenticeships. IRG also awaits public records from an October 30, 2024, records request to DPI on its lowering of state test score standards. IRG\u2019s previous report, <\/span>Testing Our Patience<\/span><\/a>, broke news on how, when, and why Superintendent Underly drove those changes.<\/span><\/p>\n

###<\/span><\/p>\n


The <\/i>Institute for Reforming Government<\/i><\/a> is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that seeks to simplify government at every level by offering policy solutions to thought leaders in American government in the areas of tax reform, government inefficiency, and burdensome regulations. To view this press release online, <\/i>click here.<\/i>
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<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/what-are-they-hiding-dpi-fails-to-fulfill-irg-public-records-requests-on-mps-financial-mismanagement-for-7-months\/ For Immediate Release:\u00a0 January 28, 2025 What Are They…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":14977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-institute-for-reforming-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14978,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14975\/revisions\/14978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}