A Wisconsin school district has removed race-based hiring practices from its strategic plan after a federal complaint was filed against it.
West Allis-West Milwaukee School District included the goal of increasing “diversity in the workforce across key demographic categories” from 10% to 25% in a 5-year period on the final page of its original 2025-2030 Strategic Plan. However, after Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), a nonpartisan organization, filed a civil rights complaint against the school district in January, the district revised its 2025-2030 Strategic Plan, removing the “diversity” section, the Daily Caller News Foundation first reported in January.
In the original plan, the “Diversity” section was listed as the first bullet point under “Talent Acquisition and Employee Engagement,” according to the DCNF’s January report. The complaint alleged that the “District’s Strategic Plan is quietly attempting to violate civil rights laws” by violating Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Title VI prohibits any program receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating against “race, color, or national origin,” and Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
“After PPT exposed West Allis-West Milwaukee School District’s diversity hiring quota and filed a federal civil rights complaint, the district was forced to quietly scrub it from its strategic plan,” PPT Communications Director Alexa Moutevelis told DCNF. “This is welcome news.”
The revised strategic plan still states that in 2027-2028, its plans to “deepen our impact,” and focus “on increasing staff diversity and school climate.” It will “prioritize hiring and retaining a diverse workforce that better reflects our student population.”
PPT’s January complaint against the school district was addressed to the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Justice.
“But while the school district attempts to memory hole its most blatantly unlawful policy, it continues to push DEI, which is inherently discriminatory. Teaching that immutable characteristics should play a role in educational and hiring decisions is a terrible lesson for our school children and an abuse of taxpayer money,” Moutevelis said. “We urge federal officials to investigate the rest of the strategic plan for Civil Rights Act violations.”
(DCNF)