WAUSAU, WI – Today, Congressman Tom Tiffany (WI-07) called for a full audit of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) after the agency spent $368,885 in taxpayer funds on a four-day water park resort junket in June 2024, where hand-picked participants were asked to rubber-stamp DPI’s plan to lower student proficiency standards. Tiffany also urged every Democrat candidate for governor to join him in this demand.
This comes after more than a year of DPI ignoring an open records request. The Dairyland Sentinel filed the request in January 2025 seeking details on how DPI spent taxpayer dollars. The agency did not provide answers until February 2026, only after the Institute for Reforming Government stepped in. It’s apparent that DPI refuses to comply with the spirit of Wisconsin’s open records laws.
“It’s clear DPI needs a full audit,” said Tiffany. “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.”
Tiffany continued, “I call on every Democrat candidate for governor to join me in demanding an audit. Transparency should be bipartisan. 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% of Wisconsin 4th graders cannot read at grade level. While the so-called ‘education governor’ Tony Evers vetoed legislation to restore higher standards, that bill will be signed into law when I am governor. We cannot accept failure for our kids any longer, and we must demand accountability.”
This latest controversy follows additional misconduct and mismanagement by DPI. In October 2025, investigations revealed that DPI shielded more than 200 cases of educator sexual misconduct from the public. Cap Times also found DPI failed to properly track educator investigations, while school districts claimed they had no records to release or attempted to charge exorbitant fees for the open records request.
In response, the State Assembly passed Assembly Bill 677 to make child grooming a felony on a bipartisan basis. Francesca Hong, a Democrat candidate for governor, was one of just six legislators to vote against the bill.
