A Year of Wins and Freedom: 2025 WILL Celebration Dinner

We thank everyone who joined us last night and made the 2025 WILL Celebration Dinner such a huge success!

It was an honor to have our keynote speaker, Jonathan Turley, join us and share his insights on the challenges facing free speech today, reminding us that it is the true cornerstone of our republic.

We hope you enjoyed the evening's reception, complete with music and hors d'oeuvres, as well as the wonderful dinner. A special thanks to The Bradley Impact Fund for their generous sponsorship, which made it possible for attendees to receive a complimentary copy of Jonathan Turley's latest book, The Indispensable Right: Freedom of Speech in an Age of Rage.

Your support makes our work possible. The WILL team looks forward to seeing you at future events!

WILL Takes On School District Over Massive Illegal DEI Funding Scheme

WILL filed a new federal complaint against the Jefferson County Public School District (JCPS) in Louisville, Kentucky, after discovering a race-based funding scheme that allocates funds to students based on the color of their skin.

For the 2024–25 school year, JCPS district allocated over $35 million in "Racial Equity Funding." This model provides schools with hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funding based on their percentage of students of color. This includes:

Discretionary funds that gives an additional $1,000 to $1,500 per pupil for minority students only.
Schools with 80% students of color get $200,000 in extra funding, excluding schools with white majorities.
Instructional materials that explicitly call for the exclusion of "white" culture elements.
An "Affirming Racial Equity Tools" document defines "diverse" as not being white, Western, or Christian.
The district also pledges to diversify staff to better reflect the racial and ethnic student population.

WILL filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of a Kentucky family with current and former students in the district. We are hopeful that the Department of Education launches a Title VI investigation into the JCPS district and ends all illegal race-based and DEI policies.

WILL Associate Counsel, Lauren Greuel, stated, “JCPS is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on racism. Based on our findings, the district allocates additional resources to certain students and schools based on skin color alone. The Trump Administration needs to fully investigates this unlawful, race-based approach.”

Solving Wisconsin's Math Crisis

WILL has unveiled a new policy report, “Closing Wisconsin’s Math Gap: A Call for Early Numeracy Reform,” sounding the alarm on declining math achievement and offering solutions to reverse the crisis.

The United States is falling behind in math. National and international assessments reveal steep declines in performance. On the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an international assessment of math and science, U.S. 4th- and 8th-grade math scores saw their largest declines since the test began.

Solutions for the Classroom: At least seven states have passed early numeracy laws since 2022 to improve foundational math skills. Alabama, an early adopter, was the only state to see gains in fourth-grade math on the 2024 NAEP, showing the effectiveness of these reforms. Wisconsin should consider similar policies to boost math achievement.

Solutions for the School Board: Alongside this report, WILL also introduced a model numeracy policy with a clear, evidence-based framework to monitor student progress, strengthen instruction, and close early skill gaps.

WILL Policy Director, Kyle Koenen, stated, “Without strong math skills, Wisconsin’s students will struggle in school, at work, and in life. This report highlights practical and bipartisan success stories from seven states that acted, and now it’s time for Wisconsin to do the same. If we want our kids to succeed in school and our workforce to stay competitive, we must start building a stronger math foundation in the early grades.”

Governor Evers Opts Out

President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" created a new nationwide K-12 tax credit scholarship program that would unlock a major stream of education funding for Wisconsin families – all at no cost to the state. Its implementation depends on each state's governor opting in. Unfortunately, Governor Tony Evers has chosen to not opt Wisconsin into the program, a decision that will prevent countless families from accessing key new scholarship funds.

These scholarships could have been used for a wide range of educational expenses, such as private school tuition, tutoring, transportation, and special needs therapies. Governor Evers is one of only a few Democrat governors that so far has refused to opt their state into the program. The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board criticized Governor Evers' decision and can be read HERE.

WILL Goes to Marquette University

WILL Deputy Counsel Dan Lennington and Center for American Rights President Daniel Suhr were invited to speak with Marquette University Law students.

The two discussed the importance of free speech and the First Amendment, what true equality under the law looks like, and WILL's recent settlement agreement with the Wisconsin State Bar, which ends DEI and race-based admissions into the program.

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