The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association may be subject to open meetings and public records laws following this week’s vote by the Wisconsin Senate.
According to The Center Square, the Senate voted 22-11 in favor of requiring the WIAA’s meetings to be open and subject to public record keeping. The legislation will next pass to the assembly and require a signature from Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers.
Lawmakers argued that the WIAA should be more transparent in its decision-making process and authority, and in doing so, the legislature has decided that the organization is not a government entity and should not have total power over public school athletics.
"This legislation advances even though the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the WIAA is not a government or quasi-government entity," the WIAA said in a statement. "SB 16 imposes burdens typically meant for public offices, and we are concerned this will disrupt our ability to effectively serve our member schools and student-athletes."
Other members of the WIAA, opposed to the legislation, argued that because the WIAA is a private entity and does not rely on tax funds to operate, the state government should not be exercising this power over the organization. Most of the WIAA’s funding comes from donations and tournament revenue.
Despite pushback from the WIAA, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty released a statement saying, “WIAA is a nominally private membership association that exercises governmental power by playing gatekeeper over interscholastic athletics, a government-provided benefit. A great bipartisan group of state senators just voted to advance legislation to ensure the WIAA complies with the public records law. Long overdue legislation.”
This vote marks the second time this year that Wisconsin lawmakers have gotten involved in the WIAA. In April, lawmakers forced the organization’s hand in approving name, image, and likeness payments for high school athletes when they prepared a bill to supersede the WIAA’s authority.
