State Superintendent Jill Underly with Madison La Follette High School Principal Mathew Thompson and Madison Public School District Superintendent Joe Gothard in the hallway at La Follette in September 2024. | Photo by Ruth Conniff

During her 2025 State of Education address in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda, State Superintendent Jill Underly called the Trump administration the “biggest school-yard bully” that Wisconsin schools must overcome and said chronic underfunding at the state level continues to put pressure on districts to do more with less. 

Thursday’s address was Underly’s first during her second term in office. She won reelection in April this year. She used the address as an opportunity to call for the state to give more support to schools.

“Public education in Wisconsin is not just a system; it’s a living story written daily by the people who believe in its promise…  by students walking into classrooms filled with possibility, by the teachers who dedicate their lives to unlocking potential, by the families and the communities who support them,” Underly said. However, she warned that pride in the public education story “does not guarantee a happy ending.” 

“Pride alone can’t patch a leaking roof. Pride doesn’t shrink a class of 32. Pride will not put a counselor in every school, and pride does not replace sustainable funding. Pride doesn’t fix inequity,’ Underly said. “Pride must be paired with action.” 

The first several months of Underly’s term have been marked by federal upheaval as the Trump administration has abruptly paused and pulled federal funding that goes to education priorities and also by the completion of a state budget that fell short of public school advocates’ goals. 

Underly said the Trump administration is using funding as a bargaining chip by withholding it with little notice in order to demand schools comply with unclear and unlawful requests. 

Most recently, the Trump administration decided to withhold nearly $11 million in grants to support deafblind students and special education teachers. The explanation delivered to the state DPI was that the programs “reflect the prior administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration.” 

Over the summer, schools across the nation were thrown into uncertainty after the Trump administration said it would be withholding Title program payments. The administration eventually reversed its decision. 

“Their efforts seek to sow confusion and create chaos and erode trust in an education system already under incredible pressure. We teach our students to stand up to bullies, but this year, the biggest school-yard bully in our public schools is our own federal government,” Underly said. “We will not allow politics or outside forces to rewrite the story of Wisconsin’s public schools. We will not stand by while the future of our children is at stake. We will fight, we will lead, and we will stand up for every student.”

Underly also said the state government is putting school districts in a situation where they must stretch their budgets and are left to solve their problems alone. 

“Decades of insufficient funding have forced a historic number of districts into an impossible situation, turning to referenda year after year just to survive, all while facing micromanaging from Madison and endless finger pointing from lawmakers who too often choose politics over partisanship,” Underly said. 

The state budget, which was passed by the Republican-led state Legislature and signed by Gov. Tony Evers, included a boost in special education funding from about 30% to 45%. But school districts have said that another aspect of the budget, which made no increase at all in state aid for both years of the biennium, left them in a tight spot. Underly said the budget was “not perfect” but “makes meaningful progress for our schools, especially in special education” and acts as a “starting point.” 

‘Pulling resources away from public schools to fund private ones’

“And here’s the truth: We are starving one system while funding another. We cannot afford to keep pulling resources away from public schools to fund private ones and expect both to thrive. That is not good stewardship, and that is not Wisconsin,” Underly said. 

Underly was referencing the state’s school voucher programs, which allow students to use public funds to attend participating private schools. Caps on the program, which limit the number of students who can participate, are scheduled to lift after the 2025-26 school year. 

The growth of the state’s school voucher programs coincides with public school districts’ increasing reliance on raising money through property tax hikes that local taxpayers have to decide whether to approve.

“This under-investment has created a growing sense in too many classrooms during too many school board meetings and around too many kitchen tables that our schools are being left to go it alone,” Underly said. 

Underly said the financial pressures are placing teachers and students under other types of stress as well. 

“Our schools are not failing. We are failing our schools, and we can’t afford to keep writing this chapter. If we truly believe in writing a better story for public education, then it’s long past time for our state to step up and deliver on its promise,” Underly said. “When we underfund, we burn out teachers. When we ignore, we lose talent.” 

Underly called attention to the mental health problems that many students are facing, saying that the political environment could be making things worse. She specifically noted the high rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm among LGBTQ+ students, especially transgender students. 

“The debates taking place in the public sphere, and right here in this Capitol building aren’t about sports,” Underly said, referencing bills that have been debated this year that would bar transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams. “They’re about something much deeper — whether kids are allowed to belong. It’s not just one group of kids, it’s every kid. It’s the kid who doesn’t know where their next meal is going to come from. It’s the kid growing up in a low-income neighborhood without access to the same opportunities just a few miles away. It’s the kids still learning English like so many generations of Americans before them, navigating a world that too often makes them feel invisible. It’s the rural kid who has big dreams but lacks access to broadband or after-school programs.” 

Undery said that despite the challenges, there is hope for the future of Wisconsin schools. 

“Throughout history, Wisconsin has led the way,” Underly said, noting that the state had the first kindergarten program in the country and created one of the first statewide public library systems. 

“That courage, that commitment to progress, that’s in Wisconsin’s DNA,” Underly said. “Now, we stand at a defining moment. In this next chapter, you re-elected me to lead that work not to maintain the status quo, but to drive real change to lead to act to set a clear path forward, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.” 

She listed priorities including hands-on learning, embracing new technologies, creating personalized learning experiences and recruiting and retaining teachers. She also said DPI is also working to modernize to be a “stronger and more effective partner” to schools and educators.

“The future isn’t red. The future isn’t blue. The future, Wisconsin, is sitting in our classrooms right now, and this is our wake-up call. This is the mirror we must face,” Underly said. “Will we be the generation that looked away as our schools crumbled? Or will we be the ones who stood up, kept our promise, and chose to write a different story?”