A Wisconsin school district has been hit with a federal complaint for allegedly using race-based hiring practices and prioritizing “diversity” over qualifications.
West Allis-West Milwaukee School District’s 2025-2030 strategic plan details explicit goals of “increasing staff diversity” and prioritizing “hiring and retaining a diverse workforce that better reflects our student population.” Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed a federal complaint against the district on Thursday with the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Education (ED) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which has been shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“[B]y creating a goal of an increase of ‘diverse’ teachers, the implied, and logical, goal is to reduce the number of teachers that are not ‘diverse.’ This is discriminatory,” the complaint reads. “Furthermore, assigning a numerical value to the goal for race-based hiring, as the District has done, represents an even more direct and egregious affront.”
The district lists its diversity-based hiring metric as its main goal of the 2027-2028 school year, stating the goal “will deepen our impact.” It also states an explicit goal to “Increase diversity in the workforce across key demographic categories from 10% in August 2025 to 25% in August 2030” under the “talent acquisition and employee engagement” section.
West Allis-West Milwaukee School District did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
The district’s 10-point “we believe” statement lists “equity,” addressing biases and “eliminating systemic barriers” as its second point.
“Equity begins with us. We acknowledge and address our own biases and commit to eliminating systemic barriers that hinder student success,” it reads.
The third bullet point promises to provide students with “rigorous, inclusive, and culturally relevant learning experiences.”
“Our team must reflect our values,” another point reads. “We recruit, retain, and develop a workforce that is culturally competent, inclusive, and committed to equity.”
It mentions “equity” in some form a total of four times.
The district does state plans to increase student success as well, but in doing so admits that only 33% of its 3rd grade students are testing proficient or advanced in literacy and 33% of its 8th graders are earning the same status in mathematics on the state exam.
“If it isn’t clear to everyone yet, what is happening in Wisconsin, Ohio, and many other states is an unfortunate symptom of how our education establishment has lost its way,” Michael Chamberlain, director of PPT, told the DCNF. “Reading, writing, and arithmetic have been pushed aside in favor of ideologies that discriminate against certain students and pit students against each other based upon characteristics they cannot control.”
“The fact it is happening in areas where the public would loath to accept such dogma is evidence of the groupthink and susceptibility to fads that are far too prevalent among those in charge of teaching our kids.”
PPT is accusing the district of violating Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act for its race-based practices.
“The District is clearly continuing its practice of imposing DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] on its pupils and staff in some form,” the complaint reads. “The very mention of words like ‘diversity’ and ‘equity’ signal that. The Department of Education should conduct an investigation to determine what exactly their usage of these words translate to.”
“If it is found that the District is creating initiatives designed to help minority students—but not white students—get ahead, then the District’s practices are inherently discriminatory. If criteria to get into advanced classes or certain programs are different for students depending upon their race, the practices are discriminatory,” it continues. “No metrics that benefit or harm a student on the basis of race can pass scrutiny under Title VI and the Department of Education’s regulations consistent with Title VI.”
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