{"id":15548,"date":"2025-02-27T18:01:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T19:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15548"},"modified":"2025-02-27T20:14:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T20:14:47","slug":"scouts-hope-gov-evers-will-have-change-of-heart-on-school-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=15548","title":{"rendered":"Scouts hope Gov. Evers will have change of heart on school access"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.badgerinstitute.org\/scouts-hope-gov-evers-will-have-change-of-heart-on-school-access\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill sailed through both chambers last year<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Scouting leaders say they\u2019re hoping that legislation granting them a few minutes for a recruiting talk at the start of Wisconsin public schools\u2019 academic year is more successful this time around.<\/p>\n

The bill<\/a>, sponsored by state Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Fox Crossing), is the same as last year\u2019s, although the Assembly version has a new lead sponsor, Rep. Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc).<\/p>\n

Last year, the measure sailed through both chambers on voice votes until it ran into a veto<\/a> by Gov. Tony Evers. Will things come out differently?<\/p>\n

\u201cWho knows?\u201d said Lucia Cronin, a 30-year volunteer who chairs the support structure for Scouting America councils in Wisconsin, Illinois and the Upper Peninsula. \u201cScouting America\u201d is the name of what used to be the Boy Scouts of America.<\/p>\n

The bill would require the principal of a public school \u2014 district or charter \u2014 to find a date and time around the beginning of the school year for a Scouting representative to provide children information on how to join. It does the same for a handful of other federally chartered youth groups, such as Girl Scouts, FFA and 4H.<\/p>\n

Scouting leaders had been doing such visits for years, said Andrew Hardin, who heads the Scouting organization in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties. It takes \u201cno more than five minutes,\u201d he said, and usually amounts to a Cub Scout pack leader telling children what Scouts do, and passing out fliers so parents know how their kids can join.<\/p>\n

But schools began refusing any such recruiting talks, and \u201cit really has accelerated in the past five years,\u201d said Hardin, with schools not easing up restrictions that were put in place after reopening from COVID-era lockdowns.<\/p>\n

This past fall\u2019s recruiting season \u201cwas more challenging than ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Evers vetoed the last session\u2019s bill, he complained<\/a> the bill \u201cstrips\u201d from superintendents and principals the \u201cdecision-making authority to determine permissible entry\u201d to schools, and he went on to claim that it \u201cmay run afoul of the right of other groups\u201d not chartered in federal statute to make a pitch to children.<\/p>\n

This latter concern mirrored comments<\/a> from lobbying groups connected with school administration. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards, the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators, and groups representing school district business managers and human resources directors complained that it was \u201cunclear\u201d how the requirement would interact with federal law from the 1980s on groups\u2019 access to schools.<\/p>\n

Cronin, however, notes that this didn\u2019t seem to be a concern as recently as just before the pandemic: A few minutes of noninstructional time to talk up the Cub Scouts was a given in most schools. Now, \u201coften, outright, the answer is, \u2018No, we allow no external groups to come in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Cronin nor Hardin speculates on why the change in attitude.<\/p>\n

There had been incidents of school districts<\/a> several decades ago barring the Boy Scouts because of its stance on homosexuality; the Madison Common Council barred some funding<\/a> for Scouting groups in 2004 on that basis. In response, a federal law two decades ago<\/a> prohibited schools from barring the Scouts if other groups were admitted to schools. And Scouting has since changed its stance<\/a>, calming the organization\u2019s status as a cultural trigger for progressives.<\/p>\n

Hardin doesn\u2019t see those old battles as playing into the recent surge in closed doors: \u201cI think our reputation among school leaders is very strong,\u201d he said. Cronin, too, said that administrators seem to regard Scouting as an important part of character formation. \u201cThey have a very favorable opinion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Parents, too, she said, seem to see Scouting as good for children, \u201conce they learn what we do and how we do it,\u201d but the recent trend toward excluding Scout recruiting interrupts a key pathway for reaching parents. Schools are the principal way children are organized, said Cronin, which is why when she was recruiting potential Cub Scouts, \u201cI was always friends with the kindergarten teacher, and with the PTA and with the school secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents may think well of Scouting in the abstract, she said, but without a flier about the date and place of a join-the-pack organizing event, families don\u2019t know the specifics of how to sign up. With school visits, said Cronin, \u201cWe\u2019re not persuading\u201d so much as showing where the doorway into the Scouting experience can be found.<\/p>\n

If the bill passes into law, Wisconsin would join more than a half-dozen states with similar measures that, unlike the federal law prohibiting schools from discriminating against Scouting and other such federally chartered youth groups, affirmatively grant them access. Indiana was among the most recent to pass one<\/a>, in 2020, and Florida did so in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin measures each have been assigned to the education committees of the Assembly and the Senate; no hearings have yet been held.<\/p>\n

Patrick McIlheran is the Director of Policy at the Badger Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

Any\u202fuse or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written\u202fpermission.\u202fTo request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute President Mike Nichols at\u202f<\/em>mike@badgerinstitute.org<\/em><\/a>\u202for 262-389-8239.<\/em><\/p>\n

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