In The Belly of the Beast: ACT 266 & The Policy Advocacy of HMoob/Hmong & Asian American K-12 Studies in Wisconsin

Tony DelaRosa

This study examines the invisibility and erasure of Hmong and Asian Americans in education policy advocacy in Wisconsin, focusing on the passage of Wisconsin Act 266 in 2024. WI Act 266 mandates the inclusion of Hmong and Asian American history in the statewide K-12 curriculum, addressing the longstanding harmful exclusion and misrepresentation of these groups. WI Act 266 amends WI Act 31, which previously only mandated the inclusion of Black, Hispanic, and Native/Indigenous histories. The study challenges the invisibility and erasure of Hmong and Asian Americans by capturing their perspectives as leaders in the policy advocacy process. Grounded in Asian Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit) and Hmong epistemology, the research employs oral history interviews to reconstruct the history of Act 266 and humanize the narratives of policy advocates. The study highlights the importance of counterstories in challenging dominant narratives that often render these communities invisible, misrepresented, or stereotyped. By examining the policy advocacy process in Wisconsin, this research fills a gap in contemporary Asian American K-12 education movement scholarship, which primarily focuses geographically on bicoastal states and the South, while neglecting policy advocacy as a unit of analysis. The findings will offer valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, and community advocates, providing an equity framework to support ongoing efforts in ethnic studies policy in Wisconsin and beyond.

About Tony DelaRosa

Tony DelaRosa (he/they/siya) is the son of Pampangan & Caviteño Filipino immigrants and the father of two Filipinx-Cuban kids. He is a poet, sociologist, entrepreneur, and avid gamer. Tony holds a Masters in arts education and non-profit management from Harvard University. Tony is now a PhD Candidate in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He researches HMoob/Hmong Policy Advocacy, Du Boisian Afro-Asian Racialization and Solidarity, and Ethnic Studies movements, with support from the UW-Madison EdGRS Fellowship, the OCA-Wisconsin Graduate Leadership Fellowship, the UW-Madison Education Policy Engagement Grant, the UCEA Barbara Jackson Scholarship, and the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. For his dissertation, he is building an oral history archive of HMoob/Hmong and Asian American policy advocacy in partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society. Outside of education, Tony co-investigates the USAP Tayo Lab at the Center for Healthy Minds at UW-Madison, a community-engaged project with FilExcellence, where he examines the relationship between politics and the well-being of Filipina/x/o Americans nationally. In 2023, Tony was named one of Wisconsin's Most Influential Asian American leaders by Madison 365 magazine. He will be an incoming NYU Faculty First-Look fellow in 2027. Tony has been published in the Harvard Asian American Policy Review, Urban Education Review, and the Sage Encyclopedia for Filipina/x/o Studies. His work has been featured in Hulu, CBS, Harvard Education Magazine, NBC, and elsewhere. He serves as a contributing writer for the Hechinger Report and Mochi Magazine. Lastly, Tony is the author of the award-winning book "Teaching the Invisible Race: Embodying a Pro-Asian American Lens in Schools," published by Jossey-Bass. Learn more at TonyRosaSpeaks.com.