Freedom & Opportunity for All

WIN | Biden Department of Education finally begins Title IX Investigation into Sun Prairie Locker Room Incident

A Title IX investigation has been opened into the Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD) by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

WILL filed a complaint in June of 2023 following a troubling incident that occurred at SPASD, where an 18-year-old male who identified as transgender showered completely undressed next to four freshman girls in the girls’ locker room.

Following the school's failure to sufficiently address the incident, disregard for parents’ concerns, and their stonewalling of an open records request, WILL worked alongside parents of the school district to seek an investigation and remedies from the Department of Education under the Biden Administration. The federal government notified WILL that in response to our complaint they are opening an investigation of SPASD.

🗯 Cory Brewer, WILL Associate Counsel, stated, “Parents and students should be able to feel confident that their school is complying with federal laws like Title IX, but right now in Sun Prairie parents do not have that confidence. We applaud the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for investigating the allegations made in our complaint, but we all need to wait and see if they take this as seriously as they should. We hope this results in answers for parents and families at the Sun Prairie Area School District, but we won’t know until we see the results of the investigation.”

🗯 Dan Lennington, WILL Deputy Counsel, added, “By no means is what happened in Wisconsin an isolated incident. When schools fail to act in accordance with the law and either ignore or disregard their own policies, parents have a right to fight back. Now it’s imperative that the Biden Administration conducts a thorough investigation and provides transparency and peace of mind to Sun Prairie parents.”

📰 Read more about this legal update in Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire, Newsweek, and the Wisconsin State Journal.

NEW | WI Kids are Skipping Class at an Alarmingly High Rate

WILL released "Truancy Troubles: Chronic Absenteeism in the Badger State,” a new report which investigates truancy trends in the Bader states.

From several years of truancy data collected from school districts across the state, this study’s findings show the number of kids missing school is on the rise in Wisconsin, doubling from 10% in 2012 to 20% today.   

🗯 WILL Research Director, Will Flanders, PhD, stated, “Since the pandemic, chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed in Wisconsin and across the country. The lack of classroom attendance is setting the stage for economically and socially depressed communities to continue to struggle for generations to come. With our research, parents, schools, and policymakers can come together to change this trajectory and support Wisconsin students better.” 

📰 Learn more in The Center Square.

STATEMENT | WILL Pledges to Defend Act 10

We released a statement in support of Act 10, critical collective bargaining reforms that were put in place by Governor Scott Walker in 2011. 

WILL was founded in 2011, partially in response to the legal challenges to lawful acts of Governor Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature. 

🗯 WILL President and General Counsel Rick Esenberg, stated “For the better part of the last 12 years, no piece of legislation has loomed larger in public policy debates in Wisconsin than Act 10, the collective bargaining reform law passed in 2011. The ‘Budget Repair Bill,’ introduced by Governor Scott Walker in the first weeks of his first term, represented a fundamental break with the past and a new era for state and local governments in the Badger State and the country. Since then, WILL has been on the forefront of examining the impact of Act 10 on education, the teaching workforce, and puncturing the myths that persist about the law. Now with a new lawsuit, we stand ready to defend the law in the court of law and in the court of public opinion. Because make no mistake, an end to Act 10 would have a devastating effect on the budgets of school districts, municipalities, and Wisconsin’s overall fiscal stability.” 

VIDEO | Meet This School Choice Teacher

👋 Meet Jennifer Meinhardt! Jennifer is a teacher who just wants what's best for her kids in the classroom. She sees the choice program as a home run for her school, but also her own kids who are a part of the program!

🚨🚨🚨 Learn more about the threat to school choice here.

STATEMENT | WILL Condemns Governor Evers’ Use of “Secret” Email Account 

We released a statement regarding a new report from Wisconsin Right Now, which includes the Office of the Governor confirming that Governor Tony Evers does indeed use a fictitious email account. 

🗯 WILL President and General Counsel, Rick Esenberg, stated, “This is an obvious attempt to avoid public scrutiny and evade the state’s open records law. The governor should release every email from this 'account' to rectify this violation immediately. His administration should then take an additional step to disclose any and all 'secret' e-mail account and accounts using aliases by his senior staff, including those from members of his cabinet.” 

🎙️ Learn more about this issue and tune in to this radio interview with WILL Deputy Counsel, Dan Lennington.

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As a non-profit and non-partisan organization, we litigate in the areas of equality under the law, property rights, the freedom to earn a living, voting rights, regulation, taxation, school choice, and religious freedom. As an educational organization, we strive to advance the debate concerning law and public policy in these and other areas.

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