Brittany Kinser headshot. Photo: courtesy of campaign. State Superintendent Jill Underly speaking at a rally in the Capitol. Photo: Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
State superintendent candidates, incumbent Jill Underly and education consultant Brittany Kinser, answered questions about public school funding, the state’s voucher program and working with the Legislature during an online forum Wednesday evening.
The forum was hosted by the Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN), the NAACP, the League of Women’s Voters and Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed and moderated by Kevin Lawrence Henry, Jr., Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at UW-Madison.
The race for the nonpartisan office will appear on voters’ ballots April 1 alongside the high-profile state Supreme Court race. The state superintendent is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts and leading the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), which administers state and federal funds, licenses teachers, develops educational curriculum and state assessments and advocates for public education.
Underly, who was elected to her first term in 2021, said she has the relationships, experiences and “deep knowledge of what it takes to lead Wisconsin’s public schools.” She said that she is “100% pro public school” and said that improvements have been made to Wisconsin’s education system, but there is more work to be done.
Kinser said that her “vision for Wisconsin education is that 95% of children will be able to read well enough to go to college, have a career or a meaningful job or master of trade” and is running “to restore our high standards.” She referenced the recent changes approved by Underly in 2024 to state testing standards, but this was the only mention of what has become a major issue among the candidates and state lawmakers who have launched an audit into the changes and passed a bill to reverse them.
Both candidates said the state’s educational gaps must be addressed, but had varying answers on how to do that. According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), about three out of every 10 fourth graders and eighth graders were at or above proficient levels.
“We have got to take accountability at the state level for how our children are learning or not learning… This is a crisis,” Kinser said. “That’s why I got into this race. We have got to hold ourselves accountable. We have got to make it transparent. We have to make sure that it’s easy for all of us to know the information right now.”
Kinser said she has been researching some of the best practices around the country and wants to bring “more transparency and predictability” to DPI.
Underly said the gaps are “absolutely unacceptable.” She said they know how to solve the problem but that “it takes money and it takes effort.”
Both candidates said they would want to look at the state’s funding formula for schools, though Underly said that the state’s school choice program, which allows students to attend private and independent charter schools using public dollars, is draining needed resources from public schools and making problems worse.
“It goes back 30-plus years to [former Gov.] Tommy Thompson and his effort to defund public schools and send funding to unaccountable voucher schools, and this goes back to the refusal of the Legislature to fund public schools and the efforts that they make to defund public schools,” Underly said. “I say, give us the tools we need to do the work, and we can get it done.”
Underly added that she would have to sue if the Legislature continued not investing in schools, as required by the state constitution.
Kinser said that she would also want to look at the funding formula. She said that throughout her campaign she has learned that most people agree that the funding formula is “broken” and is in need of “an upgrade.” She also said that she would be interested in examining whether there is a better way to fund special education costs other than through the current reimbursement system.
“Schools are operating with limited resources, are concerned and tired of actually paying the referendums,” Kinser said. “Wisconsin’s funding formula needs to be modernized, and I promise to be a leader in that… I have relationships on both sides of the aisle and rapport with the governor’s office. We have to make sure that it’s updated.”
Underly said that she has worked to develop relationships with legislators, and has worked to “foster productive dialogue, even when we don’t agree.” She noted that collaboration between DPI and the Legislature helped get Act 20, a law that implemented new literacy requirements, passed.
Kinser took credit for helping get Act 11 passed in 2023. The bill provided a historic funding increase to independent charter schools and private schools participating in the Parental Choice Programs and raised the revenue ceiling for public schools to $11,000 for the 2023-24 school year.
“It was the Republicans plus five Democrats in Milwaukee,” Kinser said about the lawmakers who supported the bill. “The governor’s office signed that bill, so it was a group effort to get more funding for all the schools and then some other areas that the governor prioritized.”
Kinser, during her time at the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based school choice advocacy group, lobbied for a bill that increased funding to Wisconsin voucher schools.
While most of the conversation throughout the forum was cordial, the candidates butted heads at the end over Kinser’s lack of a teacher’s license and her support of the state’s choice program.
“I don’t believe she fully understands how public schools work in Wisconsin,” Underly said. “She’s made this claim routinely, for example, that only three in 10, or 30 percent of kids, are able to read, or that they’re college ready, and that makes absolutely no sense. We’ve made incredible gains in Wisconsin — how can we be sixth in the nation? And I think my vision has had a lot to do with that.”
Underly also underscored Kinser’s background as a lobbyist advocating for school vouchers and independent charter schools.
Kinser pushed back noting her varying experiences in the education field including a decade in Chicago Public Schools as a special education teacher and at the district level and about a decade as a principal and in leadership at a charter school in Milwaukee. She also clarified that she recently retained a license again.
“I paid the $185 to update my license… It was so difficult to move my license in from New York and Illinois to Wisconsin,” Kinser said. “I would hope Dr. Underly would understand this as she has said she understands that the teacher shortage is real.”
According to state records, DPI received Kinser’s application and payment on Feb. 25.
Kinser also said the claim that she is a school “privatizer” isn’t true, although she supports school choice. She said when it came to funding she was “lobbying for equal funding for all of our children.”
Brittany Kinser headshot. Photo: courtesy of campaign. State Superintendent Jill Underly speaking at a rally in the Capitol. Photo: Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner.
Incumbent State Superintendent Jill Underly and education consultant Brittany Kinser, who are competing in the April 1 election to lead the Department of Public Instruction, will both participate in a virtual forum Wednesday evening. Kinser agreed to join the forum after initially declining, making a meeting of the two candidates appear unlikely ahead of the April 1 election.
Underly is running for her second term in office on a platform of supporting and investing more funding in public schools. She has the backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Kinser, an advocate for the state’s school choice program, says she wants to work to improve reading and math education and raise state testing standards. She has the backing of the Wisconsin Republican Party and financial backing from prominent GOP billionaire megadonors.
A direct conversation between the two candidates seemed unlikely as of last week as Underly declined three invitations and Kinser declined an invitation for a forum hosted by the Wisconsin Public Education Network (WPEN), the NAACP, the League of Women’s Voters and Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed. WPEN said in an email about the event that Kinser’s campaign changed its mind and confirmed her appearance “after clearing up some confusion and adjusting the timeline of the event.”
The event is being held online at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and will be moderated by Kevin Lawrence Henry, Jr., Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at UW-Madison.
At a protest on Saturday at the Capitol in Madison, a man who asked to be identified only as Tony said he was worried about cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the withdrawal of U.S. support for Ukraine. | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner
It was a blustery, grey Saturday afternoon on March 15 as about 40 people wearing togas, carrying signs and waving upside-down American flags gathered on the steps of the Capitol in Madison to protest Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the current administration’s assault on democracy.
The Madison rally, part of a loosely organized nationwide effort launched by the 5051 Movement, was one in a series of 50 protests held in 50 states on a specific day. The theme on this day was the “Ides of March” — hence the togas and signs denouncing Trump and Musk as American Caesars.
“I am tired of bullies in our state and in our national government,” said a white-haired man who asked to be identified by only his first name, Tony. “I think they’ve lost the whole idea of what our government is all about.” Threatened cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the withdrawal of U.S. support for Ukraine’s effort to repel Russia’s invasion were among the issues that brought him to the protest.
“I’m old,” said Ann Kimber, 70, explaining why she showed up to the Capitol in her wheelchair. “I get Medicare. My daughter’s on Medicaid. And I know some people who need their VA benefits. I want people to know we’re concerned they might go away.”
Ann Kimber at the Ides of March protest in Madison | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner
Kimber organized a Facebook group of Fitchburg seniors, she said, because she felt there was nothing happening to resist the dangerous assault on the federal government by the Trump administration. She was optimistic that protests were having an effect, causing the administration to backtrack on some of its planned cuts. “I think each group that has some stake in the matter should be out there protesting all the time,” she said.
Kimber recalled the massive 2011 protests against former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, whose attack on public employee unions and drastic cuts to education propelled tens of thousands of Wisconsinites to mount historic rallies at the Capitol. She said she thought Trump and Musk, like Walker, would suffer an inevitable public backlash because of their arrogance, acting like kings. “If they would have been a little more subtle about it they would get farther,” she said.
Madison, home to one of the top research institutions in the country, stands to lose $65 millions as Trump takes a meat cleaver to National Institutes of Health funding, with dire ripple effects for the state’s economy and for critical progress on everything from curing childhood cancer to dementia.
But unlike the 2011 Wisconsin uprising against Walker, the public response to the stunning aggression of Trump and Musk has been eerily quiet. Some of the Madison protesters said they thought too many people were intimidated about speaking out, especially after the high-profile arrest of Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian protest organizer Mahmoud Khalil, who was taken from his apartment in New York earlier this month and held under threat of deportation at a detention center in Louisiana.
“If they’re gonna start arresting people for the stuff they say … that’s fascism 101,” said Julie Mankowski, who helped organize the Madison event and showed up wearing a king-size bedsheet. “When the first person disappears, if there’s not enough outrage, it becomes no resistance at all, just fear,” she added.
People of various ages and backgrounds joined the march, including “a lot of faces I haven’t seen,” said Mankowski, “a lot of people with diverse concerns, but the real theme seems to be this is not what our country is about.”
After chanting on the State Street corner of the Capitol for a while, the group made a lap of the Capitol square, flags flying, led by a cheerful young man with a megaphone who chanted, “Fascists out of the White House!”
A couple of self-appointed marshals stopped at each intersection, facing traffic as the group crossed the street. One young man had a handgun in a holster on his hip and a “defend equality” patch on his shoulder with the image of a military-style assault rifle against an LGBTQ pride flag. The jarring suggestion of violence was muted by the jolly mood of the gathering. Cars honked and passers-by accepted handbills promoting free speech.
Carrie McClung marches around the Capitol in Madison | Photo by Ruth Conniff/Wisconsin Examiner
The Ides of March theme had shifted to free speech, explained Carrie McClung, another toga-clad protest organizer, after Khalil’s arrest. “I hope more people start coming out,” McClung added. “I know people are frustrated. I know people are angry. And I hope it encourages people — this is our right to be out here.”
The first popular test of the Trump/Musk regime will take place in Wisconsin on April 1, in a state Supreme Court race Musk has spent millions to try to buy. Some protesters carried signs supporting Judge Susan Crawford in that race and opposing Musk-backed candidate Brad Schimel. The race has garnered national attention since, as The Wall Street Journal reports, it will show whether Musk could be a political liability for Republicans.
Buoyed by all the honks of encouragement and thumbs-up from passing pedestrians, the Madison protesters wound up back on the corner of State Street where they bopped to tunes on a boom box.
While Democrats and much of the public have been too shocked and disoriented by the scale of Trump’s assault on democracy to react, the ragtag group stood out in the wind, trying to spark a movement.
In fact, this spring, signs of a bigger backlash have begun to appear, including a 3,500-person rally with Bernie Sanders at UW-Parkside in Kenosha earlier this month, where an additional 500 people were reportedly turned away from a packed arena. Videos of Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy tour have gone viral. The same weekend as the small Ides of March Madison protest, I heard a gravelly Brooklyn accent coming through my teenager’s bedroom door.
“From the bottom of my heart, I am convinced that they can be beaten,” Sanders said of the billionaires taking a chainsaw to the social safety net and Hoovering up the wealth of our nation. “Despair is not an option.”
An empty high school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)
It’s unlikely the candidates for state Superintendent will debate ahead of the April 1 election with incumbent Jill Underly turning down three opportunities and education consultant Brittany Kinser declining one.
The race for the nonpartisan state superintendent will appear on voters’ ballots alongside the high-profile state Supreme Court race. While the race is not as high profile as the campaign for Supreme Court, the results will be consequential for education in Wisconsin. The winner will be responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts and leading the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) — an agency whose responsibilities include administering state and federal funds, licensing teachers, developing educational curriculum and state assessments and advocating for public education.
Underly, who is running for her second term in office, is running on a platform of advocating for the state’s public schools and has the support and financial backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Kinser, who is running on a platform of improving reading and math education, is a school choice advocate and has the backing of Republicans, with financial support from the Republican Party of Wisconsin and backing from billionaire Republican mega-donors.
Underly, after missing a Wispolitics forum ahead of the primary, told the Examiner that February was a busy month and she would be open to attending a forum in March before the primary. The day of the Wispolitics meeting Underly said that she had to attend a meeting of the UW Board of Regents and also attended a press conference about federal payments not going out to Head Start programs.
“March is not as busy,” Underly said at the time. “I have other meetings and things that are standard, but like, February is just unreasonable… You’re traveling so much and you’ve got a lot of obligations, so it’s hard right now, so yes, you know, next month, if there are forums and I don’t have a standing conflict.”
Since the primary, Underly has declined three debate opportunities.
The Milwaukee Press Club along with WisPolitics and the Rotary Club of Milwaukee will host an event March 25, and said it invited both candidates to participate but Underly’s campaign spokesperson said she was unavailable.
Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education will host an event with Kinser on Thursday. Kevin Conway, Associate Director of University Communication, said the center extended invitations to both candidates for a general election debate ahead of the February primary.
“While all candidates agreed in concept, the Lubar Center was subsequently unable to confirm a program time with the Underly campaign,” Conway said. “Given the circumstances, the Lubar Center pivoted to offering “Get to Know” programs to both candidates, and the Kinser campaign accepted.”
WISN-12 had invited both candidates a chance to debate on UpFront, the channel’s Sunday public affairs program.
“So far, we cannot get both candidates to agree on a date,” WISN 12 News Director Matt Sinn said in an email.
Underly said in a statement to the Examiner that her job as superintendent “requires every minute I can give it, which means making choices which matter the most for our kids’ future, and advocating on their behalf every single day.”
Underly has agreed to a forum being hosted by the Wisconsin Public Education Network, a nonpartisan public education advocacy group, and the NAACP.
“Unfortunately the dates did not work for other debates, but we were able to agree to the Wisconsin Public Education Network forum, which is the forum for the education community,” she said.
WPEN Executive Director Heather DuBois Bourenane said WPEN had communicated with all of the candidates about a general election forum before the primary and the NAACP followed up with Kinser after the primary.
Kinser’s campaign ended up declining.
DuBois Bourenane told the Examiner that the group is hoping Kinser will reconsider, noting that they want to have a “fair and friendly” conversation with the candidates to talk about their “vision for Wisconsin kids.” She said the League of Women Voters was also supposed to cohost the event, but the group doesn’t sponsor events where only one candidate participates.
“It’s unfortunate that voters aren’t going to have an opportunity to hear from the candidates directly,” DuBois Bourenane said. “We hope Ms. Kinser will reconsider… We would love to have her at the event, and as we said in our email, make every effort to make sure that it’s fair and that the questions reflect the concerns that are most pressing to Wisconsin kids.”
Underly said that Kinser’s decision to decline “speaks volumes that after working for years to defund public schools she doesn’t want to show up and answer questions from public school advocates.”
Kinser’s campaign noted Underly declined each forum being hosted by members of the press, and accused Underly of “hiding.”
“Wisconsinites deserve to hear from the candidates who will be responsible for our children’s future. Brittany Kinser has, when possible, made herself available to any organization, group, or voter who wants to learn more about her plans to restore high standards so every student can read, write, and do math well,” the campaign stated, adding that Kinser would continue meeting with voters ahead of Election Day.
Milwaukee born-and-raised writer and pop culture critic Ira Madison III has a new book that tells the story of his life through the lens of one of his greatest obsessions: pop culture.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are busy smashing the state. Wisconsinites will have a chance to weigh in on candidates who support and oppose the anti-government crusade on April 1. | Getty Images Creative
The new Trump era is putting Republican nihilism to the test. In our closely divided swing state, the first official indication of whether Trump voters are developing buyers’ remorse will come, fittingly, on April Fool’s Day.
In the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, candidate Brad Schimel has received Elon Musk’s endorsement and is benefitting from a huge ad buy by Musk’s political action committee. And while some Republicans have expressed qualms about Trump and Musk’s assertions that they have unchecked power to ride roughshod over judges and the U.S. Constitution, Schimel has, notably, sided with Trump and Musk against the courts.
Last month, Schimel took to Vicki McKenna’s rightwing talk radio show to denounce the prosecution and sentencing of the Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol after Trump lost in 2020, saying juries in Washington, D.C., were too liberal to deliver a fair verdict. Recently, on the same talk radio program, he criticized federal judges for blocking the ransacking of federal agencies by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), accusing the judges of “acting corruptly” by daring to issue temporary restraining orders.
The race between Schimel and Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford will determine the ideological balance of the Court and, it seems, whether a majority of justices believe in the integrity of the court system at all.
Also on the April 1 ballot is the race for state schools superintendent, which pits a lobbyist for the private school voucher industry against a defender of public schools — an existential choice as the growth of schools vouchers is on track to bankrupt our state’s public school system and enrollment caps on voucher programs are set to come off next year.
The ideological struggle over the future of our state was on stark display this week as Gov. Tony Evers presented his budget plan — an expansive vision that uses the state surplus to boost funding for K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin, health care, clean water and rural infrastructure, and leaves a cushion to help protect communities against what Evers called the “needless chaos caused by the federal government” under Trump.
In a familiar ritual, Republican legislators immediately shot down Evers’ plan, denounced it as “reckless spending” and promised to throw it in the trash and replace it with a stripped-down alternative based on austerity and tax cuts.
“Wisconsin voted for Donald Trump and his agenda to cut spending and find inefficiency in government,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos declared.
But did they?
It’s not clear that most Wisconsinites wanted what Trump and Musk are delivering — cuts to health care and veterans’ services, the claw-back of infrastructure projects, mass firings at the park service and the chaotic suspension of promised federal funds for child care and other essential services in Wisconsin.
For generations, Republicans have complained about “red tape” and “big government” and promised “freedom” and lower taxes to constituents who liked the sound of all that. Under Trump, we are seeing anti-government ideology reach its full, unchecked fruition. Trump’s No. 1 private donor, the richest man in the world, is laughing all the way to the bank. He’s using his access to trillions of dollars in taxpayer funds to cancel food programs for poor children and to bolster federal contracts that enrich himself.
This, in the end, is what privatization is all about — taking the collective wealth of millions of people who contribute to maintaining a decent, healthy society and concentrating it in the hands of one very rich, self-interested man.
The long-term, existential struggle between private wealth and the public good in Wisconsin includes the fight over whether to fund public schools or give away money to subsidize the tuition of private school families. It includes whether to be the second-to-last state to finally offer 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage to new mothers — something even our Republican legislators support, minus Vos. The two sides of our divided government are locked in a battle over whether our universities, public parks, infrastructure, clean water and affordable housing are a boondoggle or something we ought to protect.
Given what’s happening to our country, Wisconsinites will have to think hard about which side they’re on.
An empty high school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)
Democratic-backed incumbent State Superintendent Jill Underly and Republican-backed education consultant Brittany Kinser will advance to the April 1 primary in the race for state superintendent.
With more than 95% of precincts reporting at midnight, Underly won 38% of the vote and Kinser won 34.5% of the vote. Sauk Prairie Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright came in third with 27.5% of the vote, eliminating him from the primary.
Wright thanked his supporters in a statement, saying he was proud of the campaign that he ran.
“I got into this race because I believe that Wisconsin should always be at the forefront of innovation and excellence in public education,” Wright said. “Our districts deserve better from the Department of Public Instruction because Wisconsin’s kids and communities deserve the absolute best from our schools.”
The state superintendent is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts and leads the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) — an agency whose responsibilities include administering state and federal funds, licensing teachers, developing educational curriculum and state assessments and advocating for public education.
The position is nonpartisan, but the Democratic and Republican parties have both waded into the race providing support, including financial backing to their preferred candidates.
Underly is running for her second term in office, saying that she wants to continue to advocate for the state’s public schools and most recently proposed that the state provide an additional $4 billion in funding for school. She has the backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin, the state’s second-largest teachers union.
Jill Underly addresses the State Council on Affirmative Action in December 2024 after accepting the group’s 2024 Diversity Award on behalf of her agency. (Screenshot via Wisconsin DOA YouTube)
In a fundraising appeal after the ballots were counted, Underly touted her support of bipartisan literacy legislation, new math and science standards and expanded career and technical education. “Today, our graduation rate is the highest in state history and our schools are ranked 6th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report — up from 14th in 2020,” she said.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler said in a statement that the party is ready to “wage a strong door-to-door campaign” to help reelect her to a second term. He said Underly’s record “stands in stark contrast to lobbyist Brittany Kinser, who has never even held a teaching license in Wisconsin.”
According to the most recent campaign finance filings, the Wisconsin GOP has contributed $200,000 to Kinser’s campaign. She has also received contributions from Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein, the billionaire owners of the Uline shipping supply company, and Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks. Her campaign is being managed by Republican former state Rep. Amy Loudenbeck.
“Kinser’s campaign is funded by Republican megadonors and stage-managed by a former Republican legislator because they love that Kinser has promised to drain funds from our public schools and give them to private for-profit schools. Kinser even advocated to remove teacher licensing requirements,” Wikler said. “Our kids don’t need a right-wing puppet to lead our schools.”
Kinser has dubbed herself the only “pro-school choice” candidate in the race and has said she would support increased funding to the state’s school voucher programs. Kinser has said that she wants to improve reading and math education in schools. While supporting increases in special education and rural transportation funding, Kinser has said more transparency and accountability is needed when it comes to funding rather than large increases.
Brittany Kinser. Photo courtesy of campaign.
Kinser previously served as principal and executive director of Rocketship schools in Milwaukee and worked for the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based advocacy group that lobbies for school choice.
Kinser said in a statement Tuesday evening that she was “inspired and humbled” by the support for her campaign, and she plan to travel the state in the lead up to the general election and “share my plan to bring a clean slate, a fresh start, and a fundamentally new approach to DPI.”
Wright’s campaign was recommended for the position by the political action committee of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s largest teachers union. While he never received the union’s full endorsement, the primary created a split among public education advocates. Neither Wright nor Underly acknowledged each other’s campaigns in their respective statements.
Kinser, meanwhile, sought to call Wright supporters into her campaign.
“Jeff Wright ran a strong race and we agree on several important issues like restoring the high standards Jill Underly lowered for our children. I am committed to restoring those standards and ensuring every child has the opportunity to go to college, get a meaningful job, or master a trade,” Kinser said. “I welcome Jeff, his supporters, and all Wisconsinites — regardless of their political beliefs — who agree that our kids deserve so much better to join our campaign.”
Wisconsin GOP Chair Brian Schimming called Kinser the “common-sense” candidate in a statement and said Tuesday’s results were a “stand against the far-left policies of Jill Underly. They are fed up with liberal ideas being prioritized over their children.”
The polling place at Village on Park on Madison's South side in 2023. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. so voters can weigh in on the three-way primary race for the nonpartisan state superintendent. It’s the only statewide election on ballots in February.
The state superintendent is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts and leads the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) — an agency whose responsibilities include administering state and federal funds, licensing teachers, developing educational curriculum and state assessments and advocating for public education.
Incumbent State Superintendent Jill Underly is running for her second term in office and faces two challengers — Sauk Prairie Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright and education consultant Brittany Kinser.
Underly, a Democrat, has said she wants to continue her work advocating for Wisconsin public schools, including calling for increased funding from the state, limiting school vouchers and supporting schools through the impacts of the new Trump administration. In her reelection campaign, she has defended herself against critiques on changes to the way the state measures standardized tests and her attempts to work with the Republican-led Legislature. She has the backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and AFT-Wisconsin.
Kinser, a school choice proponent, has said she wants to improve reading and math education, “restore high standards” and supports increased state spending for Wisconsin’s school voucher programs. She previously served as principal and executive director of Rocketship schools in Milwaukee, worked for the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based advocacy group that lobbies for school choice, and has worked as a special education teacher. She has raised the most money of any candidate with financial help from Republican megadonors.
Wright, a Democrat, has said that he wants to improve communication between DPI, the Legislature and the public, supports increasing funding for public schools and wants greater transparency and accountability for voucher schools. He is endorsed by the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and was recommended for the position by the political action committee of Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s largest teacher’s union, although the full union hasn’t made an official endorsement.
The top two vote getters will advance to the general election for the position on April 1.
Wisconsin voters may also see local primary elections for mayor, city and town council, county supervisor, school board members or school referendum requests on their ballot. Five school districts across the state — Tomahawk School District Kenosha School District, Northland Pines School District, Waterford Union High School District and Mauston School District — will vote on whether to approve a total of $176 million in funding requests.
Voters can check their voter registration status here, see what will be on their ballot here and find their polling location here.
There will be no primary on Tuesday in the race for an open state Supreme Court seat, since there are only two candidates in the race — Susan Crawford, a Dane County Circuit Court judge and former prosecutor for the state Department of Justice, and Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge and former Republican attorney general.
Wisconsin residents can register to vote at their polling places on Election Day. To do so, they need to show a proof of residence document, which must contain the voter’s name and current residential address such as a bank statement, recent electric bill, or a current and valid Wisconsin driver’s license or state ID card.
Voters need to present an acceptable photo ID to vote. Acceptable IDs include a Wisconsin driver’s license, state ID card, U.S. passport, military or veteran’s ID, tribal ID, a certificate of naturalization or a student ID with a photo.
Sauk Prairie Superintendent Jeff Wright, who is running for state superintendent, with a student. Photo courtesy of campaign.
Sauk Prairie Superintendent Jeff Wright says he would work to improve communication between the Department of Public Instruction, the Legislature and the public if he’s elected to be Wisconsin’s state schools superintendent.
Wright, a Democrat, is challenging incumbent state Superintendent Jill Underly. Education consultant Brittany Kinser, a school choice advocate who has the backing of Republican donors, is also running in the Feb. 18 primary for the nonpartisan office. The top two vote getters will advance to the general election April 1.
The state superintendent is responsible for overseeing Wisconsin’s 421 public school districts and leads the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), which has an array of responsibilities including administering state and federal funds, licensing educators, developing educational curriculum and state assessments and advocating for public education.
Wright said in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner ahead of the primary that throughout his campaign, which launched in October, he has met with Republicans and Democrats at the county level, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), small town business groups, faith leaders and teacher groups.
“That’s been part of the fun is just how many different types of groups have welcomed me in to share my story and my own hopes for public schools,” Wright said.
Wright comes to the race with significant experience in Wisconsin public education.
Wright has served as the superintendent of Sauk Prairie School District since 2019 and was named Administrator of the Year in 2024 by the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance. During his time in the district, Wright has worked to help improve mental health supports in schools, reduce energy consumption by putting solar panels on the high school and helped open a child-care center that is owned by the village but will be run by the district. He also previously served as a principal in Chicago.
Sauk Prairie is one of the most purple counties in Wisconsin, Wright noted.
“[In this district], we cannot get anything done if we don’t create room at the table for people with different political beliefs, business leaders, faith leaders, parents, educators, and that’s how I’ve led as a superintendent,” Wright said, adding that that’s how he would lead as head of the DPI as well.
Wright has never held public office, though he previously ran unsuccessful campaigns for the state Assembly in 2016 and in 2018.
Wright laid out three issues he wants to tackle as part of his “strategic plan” for the agency: improving the relationship between DPI and the state Legislature, addressing the Wisconsin educator shortage and improving the achievement gaps facing the state.
Bringing people together, he says, is critical to making improvements to education in the state.
Improving communication with educators, Legislature and agency staff
When Wright entered the race, he said there was a “disconnect” between DPI and schools and the agency could do better by including different groups in conversations about its decisions.
Wright said having staff work virtually during the first couple years of Underly’s term, which started in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, created “some of the loss in trust and relationship with people, with school leaders.” He said he thinks there is a place for remote work, but that it was overused at DPI.
In his own experience as a superintendent, Wright said there were multiple times his team was scheduled to meet with Underly or her leadership team.
“We all gathered at a location, and then, not long before the meeting started, the leader of the meeting was told that the meeting would now be taking place virtually,” Wright said.
Wright said that a “promise” he makes for the office “is being present in Wisconsin schools and being directly connected to the work of education.”
In addition, Wright has said that he thinks he can repair damaged relationships between DPI and state lawmakers.
The agency has regularly come into contention with the Republican-led Legislature on a variety of issues and Underly has been outspoken about her disagreements with Republican lawmakers, including when they have withheld money from schools.
Wright said he would hope to improve the relationship by ensuring everyone is welcome to the table and there is open communication.
“We may not want the exact same way to get there, but if we’re not in this room with each other talking about how we could accomplish shared goals, it makes it easier to be really political and to say outlandish things about the other side and to demonize them when there probably is some point of agreement if we just forced ourselves to be in the same room, and that’s how we’ve led in Sauk Prairie,” Wright said. “All the projects that I just listed, my school board voted for unanimously, but I know that they have different yard signs in front of their homes when it comes to the national election.”
Wright said he knew when he entered the race that work needed to be done to help the relationship between the agency, school districts and the Legislature. However, he said he also has come to another realization: “I underestimated how much work would also have to be done to heal the relationship between the department’s leadership and the teammates who are doing the work of the department,” Wright said.
His campaign brought attention to a spending pause at the agency in early January.
The agency has paused new hiring and travel outside of Wisconsin through June 30. The agency said that a $2.3 million reduction in state funding for the DPI’s administrative costs is a key contributor to the agency’s fiscal strain. DPI said it made the decision to focus on directing resources to supporting schools and students “even if it means sacrificing some of the agency’s own needs,” according to CBS58. The agency sent a memo to staff about the pause in January.
Wright claims the freezing pause is the result of overspending in the first half of the fiscal year and the agency has been trying to correct the budget by the end of the fiscal year.
He said the recent financial strains at the agency and criticisms from over changes to the way the state measures scores on standardized tests are examples of Underly failing to be an effective leader.
“The lack of communication about the budget problems to people that are on the team has been of great concern. I think that a lot of legislators did not realize the level of financial issues either,” Wright said.
“I’ve talked with people, who are supposed to be working like shoulder to shoulder with educators and schools, that now have to do that work virtually… or they’re now doing two jobs or three jobs because of retirements or resignations, and the positions were not being able to be filled,” Wright said.
Test scores and the educator shortage
Wright also said the recent changes to the way DPI measures the state’s standardized reading and math test scores weren’t transparent or well communicated. Underly, for her part, has defended the changes, saying they were necessary because standards changed several years ago and state tests had to be updated. She also said the new cut scores better align with state standards.
“It caught way too many schools, the governor, the Legislature by surprise, and I think that that shows that broken trust,” Wright said. “That lack of communication is what people are really challenging in this.”
In reaction, Wright said his district made a spreadsheet to help measure scores from earlier years to the most recent year under the new changes. One of the biggest complaints about the changes was how it made it more difficult to track changes in student performance over multiple years.
Lawmakers introduced a bill to reverse the changes and Wright said he supports the goal of the bill, but doesn’t agree it is something that should be legislated.
“The fact that it’s being legislated is a result of a lack of trust and a broken relationship between the Department of Public Instruction and the Legislature,” Wright said. If the process for the changes were more transparent and open and there were a better relationship with lawmakers, Wright said he doesn’t “think we’d be in the same spot.”
To address the teacher shortage, Wright said the state needs to ensure that teachers have a voice in the workplace and feel respected in their jobs. Recent DPI data found that four out of every 10 first-year teachers either leave the state or the profession altogether after just six years.
Wright said he wants to ensure the state education department is collaborating with colleges of education, educator associations and leadership teams to try to find best practices in other states or within the state’s districts that can be used across Wisconsin.
Wright’s supporters
One Wright supporter is Dan Bush, a Madison resident and former employee of DPI. He worked for DPI for several years, including during the first seven months of Underly’s term, as director of the school finance team. He said it was a “really professionally and personally satisfying opportunity to be able to get,” but when Underly took office, “things started going downhill very quickly.”
“I really needed some urgency and some movement on helping me fill some vacancies because just personally, between COVID and doing double, triple duty, I was pretty exhausted at that point, but I just wasn’t getting your support in getting that filled,” Bush said.
In addition, Bush said there was “a lot of dysfunction and confusion with the new leadership team and coming in, not really communicating with managers what the direction was, what the issues were.”
Bush said he started looking for a new job within three months, and since leaving he has watched turnover in the department from the outside.
“Since I left, so much experience has just been gone. … Staffing was always kind of tight on that team, but losing so much expertise and so much experience in so short of time has really put the folks there in a tight place,” Bush said. He said he kept up with the Milwaukee Public Schools financial scandal, where the district was late in returning required documents to the state, and thinks that if “there had been folks who were more experienced, more knowledgeable,” he thinks the issue could have been addressed sooner.
Bush said he has been hoping someone “good” would challenge Underly. Though he added that it’s “tough because for politics, you know, how much do voters really care about the internal administrative workings of a public agency?” He said, however, that those issues do have a “real impact for people.”
“The way we fund schools in Wisconsin, most school funding is kind of zero sum. For some districts to get more money, other districts have to get less, and it does impact people,” Bush said.
Bush said after speaking with people he knows in Sauk Prairie and surrounding communities and meeting with Wright on several occasions, he came to the opinion that he is the right person for the job.
“I think he’s someone who’s going to be a more effective advocate for kids in schools, you know, that’s the bottom line… I have a seventh grader here in Madison, and I care about what she learns, what happens to her, and so in that sense, I’m personally invested. But I also have this whole — the personal side of this area that I spent 10 years working in, that I still feel very close to, just has not been going well, and that part does bother me,” Bush said.
Wright has the endorsement of Association of Wisconsin School Administrators (AWSA).
AWSA Executive Director Jim Lynch said the organization interviewed all three candidates in its endorsement process. Lynch said he’s known Wright during he tenure at Sauk Prairie schools, and has worked closely with him.
When it comes to DPI right now, he said “there’s room for improvement in terms of how you bring people to the table, when you bring people to the table and how that translates into sound management and really strong leadership,” Lynch said. However, he added that the endorsement is “mostly about we see a game changing candidate, and we think it’s incumbent upon us to say we think this is a special person.”
Lynch said the organization found Wright to be “a highly effective leader, highly competent, skilled, very personable” and “modest.”
Wright was recommended for the position by the political action committee of Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s largest teacher’s union. However, the full union hasn’t acted on a full endorsement.
Funding public education
Wright said he is supportive of increasing funding for Wisconsin public schools and said the number of districts turning to referendums as a way to fund operational and building costs is evidence that the current system for funding public education is “inadequate and broken.”
“We have a system of haves and have nots across the state where districts that are in communities that have the capacity of passing a referendum and potentially have more income capacity to afford it, can pass referenda to expand programming and enhance their schools. While other districts are unable to pass referendum and are in a constant state of budget cuts and potentially considering dissolving the district completely,” Wright said.
The special education reimbursement is the first funding issue that he wants the state to change. The reimbursement for public schools was raised from 30% to 33% in the last state budget.
“In the early ’90s, the state paid for over 60% of special education costs. We have a moral imperative to provide these services to kids who need them,” Wright said. “The state should be helping us pay for them right now.”
Wright said he would also advocate for raising the spending limits for districts.
“If we raised the floor … we could bring 90% of districts in the state within 10% of each other on that revenue limit, which I think is fundamentally more fair and not forcing some districts to live under low spending conditions from the 90s, while others have continued to outspend neighboring districts,” Wright said.
Limit state vouchers
Meanwhile, Wright said that he is not in favor of the voucher programs in Wisconsin growing any larger and wants greater transparency and accountability for the current programs.
First, Wright said that there should be a line on property tax bills so that people can see on those bills how much is going towards the choice programs. He also said that there should be more accountability.
“Any time that you take public money to educate a student,” Wright said, “there should be similar rules of accountability of how you spend that money and how you serve those children.”
He also said he would be open to discussing changing the income limits for students’ participation in the voucher programs. Currently, for a family of four the income limit for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and the Racine Parental Choice Program is $93,600 and the limit for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program is $68,640.
Wright said the cut offs are too high.
“We either should be doing more of a graduated system so that if your family makes more, you qualify for less government assistance, or lower that cap, which also may help families who qualify for a voucher… A graduated system would be more fair,” he said, adding that it “would make it so that families that do have income levels that are beyond the average in their community are not receiving a full voucher from the state.”
Federal level issues
The DPI also helps districts navigate the impact of federal decisions. President Donald Trump recently signed executive orders that attempt to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion in government, the private sector and schools and ban transgender girls from participating in girls sports.
Wright said the issue is “personal” for him.
“I have been on the phone with parents in my school district who have been in tears because of being sincerely scared for their own kids,” Wright said. “While they are grateful for the love and support that their kids have felt in my school district and in my schools, when they see their own children, or children that are like theirs, being demonized in the national rhetoric, it really hurts.”
Wright said statewide leaders need to focus on ensuring that school districts are supported and students can be in school and feel like they belong.
“It’s really hard to learn math when you’re scared or when you’re really, really anxious, so making sure that schools have the resources to support students when they’re going through times of trouble, and just doing all we can to be working with families and educators,” Wright said.
The administration is also considering eliminating the Department of Education. Wright said that there are important programs that the department oversees including Title I funding for districts that serve students that have the highest levels of free and reduced lunch eligibility and college financial aid.
“We need to make sure that these programs continue, and that people understand exactly what the U.S. Department of Education does, and that the programming that we see from the federal government affects our littlest learners at Head Start, but also our adult learners that are accessing grants or loans for college or university education,” Wright said.
The primary election is Tuesday, Feb. 18, and the general election is on Tuesday, April 1.
The Examiner spoke with all three candidates ahead of the election. Read about incumbent candidate Jill Underly here. Read about Brittany Kinser’s campaign here.
An empty high school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)
State superintendent candidate Brittany Kinser outraised her opponents — incumbent state Superintendent Jill Underly and Sauk Prairie Superintendent Jeff Wright — almost three times over with major contributions coming from conservatives and school choice proponents, according to recent campaign finance filings.
The primary for the state superintendent election is Feb. 18., and the top two vote getters will advance to the general election on April 1.
Republican mega-donors Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein, the billionaire owners of the Uline shipping supply company, Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks and Bill Berrien, a potential GOP gubernatorial candidate and CEO of New Berlin-based Pindel Global Precision each contributed $20,000 to the campaign.
J.C. Huizenga, a Michigan businessman who founded National Heritage Academies, a for-profit education management organization that operates more than 100 charter schools in nine states, including Wisconsin, also contributed $20,000.
Kinser also received $10,000 from Agustin Ramirez, founder of St. Augustine Preparatory Academy, a private K4-12 school that participates in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.
The campaign received $5,000 each from Fred Young Jr., a conservative donor who once successfully sued to get rid of limits on how much people can donate in total to multiple candidates running for office, and Scott Mayer, a Republican businessman who considered running for the U.S. Senate in 2024.
The Milwaukee Republican Party contributed $2,500, Cory Nettles, former Secretary for the Wisconsin Department of Commerce under Gov. Jim Doyle gave $2,500 and former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen gave $1,000.
Kinser reported spending $163,545, leaving her with $152,770.
According to Kinser’s late contribution report, her campaign has received $207,000 since Feb. 3. This includes $200,000 from the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, Underly reported raising $81,773 in the pre-primary period.
The majority of that came from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which endorsed Underly in November. The party contributed a total of $50,000. The Washburn County Democratic Party also contributed $400 to the campaign.
The AFT-Wisconsin Committee on Political Education, which has also endorsed Underly, contributed $5,000 in the pre-primary period.
Underly has spent $37,974, and according to the report, has $79,124 left.
According to her late contributions report, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has since contributed another $50,000 to the campaign.
Wright reported raising $38,269 during the pre-primary period and has spent about $16,233. He has $101,918 left according to the report.
His largest contribution during the period came from Dan Gavinsky, a general manager of Lake Delton business Original Wisconsin Ducks and Dells Boat Tours. He gave $2,000 to the campaign.
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 | Photo by Ruth Conniff
Incumbent State Superintendent Jill Underly says that Wisconsin has made some “incredible progress” in the last four years when it comes to education, but there is still more work to be done that she wants to see through in a second term leading the Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
Underly faces two challengers — education consultant Brittany Kinser, a self-described moderate and school choice proponent, and Sauk Prairie Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright, a Democrat — in the race for the nonpartisan office. The primary for the state superintendent election is Feb. 18., and the top two vote getters will advance to the general election.
“This position is about being the No. 1 advocate for public education, and I feel like I’m doing that,” Underly said in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner.
Underly, a Democrat, ran for her first term in 2021 and defeated her opponent with nearly 58% of the vote. She said entering office during the COVID-19 pandemic was “unprecedented” and presented a bit of a “learning curve,” but she said she feels like DPI has “gotten our arms around what are the most important issues that the state of Wisconsin citizens want us to work on.”
Underly said some of her work has included calls for increased investment in education throughout the budget process, and pointed to securing investments and starting certain initiatives for career and technical education, school mental health, teacher recruitment and retention efforts. She also said that she has worked hard to help elect people in the Legislature who will be “pro-public school advocates” and will help pass initiatives in the future.
Underly said 2025 is “equally unprecedented” compared to last year and her experience makes her the right person to lead DPI.
“You need somebody in this role who can [offer] stability, who has the relationships, who can be consistent in this time of chaos and we need someone who’s going to stand up for public schools — for all kids, for teachers and families — and someone who has already proven that she can do it,” Underly said.
Underly said her work on literacy is one of her proudest accomplishments in her first term.
The agency was instrumental in negotiating 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, which sought to move the state towards a “science of reading” based approach and banned “three-cueing” — a way of teaching reading that relies on context, structure and letters to identify words.
“I think what it proved is that we really do want the same thing. When we put politics aside, we can get some really good stuff done on behalf of kids,” Underly said. “The flip side of that is politics still is involved. I mean, we’re still waiting on that $50 million so that we can reimburse school districts for curriculum and hire some reading coaches, but I’m really proud of that.”
Lawmakers had dedicated the money to supporting literacy changes in the last budget, but it is being withheld by Republican lawmakers.
While Underly is proud of her accomplishments, Underly’s opponents in the race have been critical of her leadership.
Recent changes to the way DPI measures the state’s standardized reading and math test scores is at the center of criticisms from her challengers, who said the changes “lowered standards” and that the decision to make the change wasn’t transparent or well communicated. The changes included new terms to describe student achievement and new cut scores, which are the minimum scores needed to qualify for certain achievement labels.
Underly said it’s “absolutely false” that DPI lowered standards and that “it wouldn’t be an issue” if the election weren’t happening.
“The critics are wrong, and I think, by Brittany saying that this is the reason she entered the race, it just gives me this feeling that she just doesn’t understand what this job is about,” Underly said.
“We didn’t lower standards. We raised standards in math and science. We added standards in career and tech ed. We added a literacy score for all kids. We were very transparent. This is something that DPI has done periodically since testing began in state law,” Underly added. “We had to change the scoring system to match the test, and you do that any time you change a test.”
Underly said she also thinks that the focus on testing is a distraction from other consequential challenges that school districts are facing. If student achievement is a major priority for the state, Underly said, it should look towards investing in mental health, literacy and math, teachers, school meals and early childhood education, including full-day 4-year-old kindergarten.
“Where you see low test scores is in communities that have high poverty. You don’t see low test scores in the schools that have the best facilities or the most veteran teachers or strong and robust school nutrition and mental health programs,” Underly said. “It’s just a way to misdirect or to take the eye off of what really matters, and also then disguise the fact that our Legislature has underfunded schools and undermined public schools, specifically, for the past 15 years.”
Increased investment in public education
A little before polls close in Wisconsin next Tuesday, Gov. Tony Evers will deliver his budget address at the State Capitol and unveil his complete state budget proposal. As a part of the process, state agencies submitted requests to Evers late last year. Underly and DPI submitted one that would dedicate an additional $4 billion — about the same amount as the current budget surplus — towards K-12 education.
The sweeping proposal includes increasing funding for mental health supports, special education costs, literacy and math education, teachers and staff pay, free school breakfast and lunch and early childhood education, including full-day 4-year-old kindergarten. Underly said she proposed it because “it’s what our schools need.”
“They need, probably, more than that, but that’s what they need right now,” Underly said.
Underly noted school districts haven’t been receiving inflationary increases in funding from the state Legislature over the last 15 years. She also noted that last year a record number of school districts went to referendum to ask taxpayers to raise their property taxes to help cover operational and building costs.
There was a “fiscal cliff because the COVID dollars were temporary, one-time, and they couldn’t make ends meet and we had record high inflation,” Underly said. “[Schools] still have to pay staff. They still have to put gas in their buses, and they have to pay utilities and all these other things to keep their operations going, but they haven’t been able to get any increase really that’s been sustainable from our state Legislature.”
Underly said investing could help address an array of issues.
For example, Underly said teacher retention could be helped with more resources and by reestablishing the “respect and rapport that teachers deserve.” Recent DPI data found that four out of every 10 first-year teachers either leave the state or the profession altogether after just six years. She said the agency has been doing some work to help, including securing a federal grant aimed at supporting special education teachers, but that more investment would be beneficial.
Underly said enough people are being prepared for the job and by getting “more revenue in our schools, they have a feeling we can get more staff, either to lower class sizes, which will help with working conditions, and they can also pay their staff more.”
Instead of adequately addressing the financial challenges, Underly said Republicans have been blaming schools “so that people will not send their kids to public school, and they can take that money and they can put it in private vouchers.”
Limit school vouchers
Wisconsin’s school voucher programs, which use state money to subsidize families’ tuition at private schools, have been growing since the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program was created in 1990. The caps on Wisconsin’s school voucher program, which limits the number of students who can participate, are slated to be lifted in the 2026-27 school year and could have a big effect on the future of education in Wisconsin.
Underly said the state needs to ensure the program doesn’t expand any further. She noted that the programs aren’t held to the same accountability, testing, reporting or licensing requirements as the state’s public schools.
“If you have somebody in the seat who is indifferent to vouchers, or is going to be supportive of vouchers, it’s really — that’s the end of public education in Wisconsin, and that’s what the federal government wants. They want to privatize public schools,” Underly said. “They want to take the money that they no longer have to spend in the Department of Ed and just give it to parents so that they could put it in a voucher.”
“If you have somebody in the seat who is indifferent to vouchers, or is going to be supportive of vouchers, it's really — that's the end of public education in Wisconsin, and that's what the federal government wants. They want to privatize public schools,”
– State Superintendent Jill Underly
Endorsed by Democratic Party and AFT-Wisconsin
Underly’s approach to advocating for public schools is part of what has won her the endorsement of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin, a union of professionals working in the University of Wisconsin System, the Wisconsin Technical College System, public schools and state agencies.
Jon Shelton, AFT-Wisconsin vice president for higher education and a UW-Green Bay professor, said that Underly’s incumbent status and accomplishments in office set her apart in the endorsement process. The organization, which has a constitutional process for endorsements, interviewed Underly and Wright.
“[Underly] has always shown a commitment to ensuring that the voices of educators have a seat at the table and in the decision-making processes, both with the Department of Public Instruction, but also modeling that for local school districts,” Shelton said.
In addition to overseeing the state’s 421 public school districts, the state superintendent also has a seat on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Shelton said Underly’s outspokenness for educators was an asset in her position there as well. He pointed out that she was the only regent to vote against a plan to fire 35 tenured faculty members at UW-Milwaukee and to give a speech about the negative consequences of the decision.
Shelton also called Underly’s budget proposal “visionary.” He said that K-12 education and higher education, while separate systems in Wisconsin, are connected since younger students eventually become college students and the higher education system is responsible for preparing their future education, which is why it’s important to see both supported by the state.
Shelton said the proposal is important because there is a budget surplus in Wisconsin and educators shouldn’t allow “our expectations to be lowered.” He noted that under new legislative maps, 14 Democrats flipped seats in the state Legislature and the impact could continue in the future.
“In 2026, Democrats could have control of either one or both houses of the Legislature. This idea that we have to basically just adhere to the low expectations of Republican priorities, it’s not the reality anymore,” Shelton said. “So it’s really important that we have people who are in a position like Dr. Underly, who have that platform to be able to vocally and forcefully advocate for these priorities, so that they’re on the agenda in 2026.”
Shelton said having an advocate willing to engage in certain battles is more important than having a candidate that prioritizes working across the aisle due to the actions being taken at the federal level right now.
“Our nation, our state, is under threat from authoritarian Republicans. Right now, the Trump administration is intentionally trying to sow chaos and intentionally trying to set working people against each other. This is why you have this, this executive order, which is meant to prevent even teaching about things like race and racism. This is not like the West Wing… where you have Republicans and Democrats having good faith differences of opinion. This is a party at the national level that is connected to [Assembly Speaker] Robin Vos and the Republicans at the state level, who, frankly, don’t want certain parts of our education system to exist,” Shelton said.
“We’ve tried to find common ground with Republicans, and they just keep cutting our budgets and keep coming at us for more, and frankly, our administrators continue to accommodate this,” Shelton continued. “We’re not going to let our students and the people of the state have the public higher education system, that’s been so good for such a long time, just taken from us, and so we’re going to be the ones on the front lines of fighting it, just like we’re going to be the ones on the front line of fighting authoritarianism from the national level.”
The Wisconsin Democratic Party endorsed Underly for a second term at the end of November. Party Chair Ben Wikler called her a “steadfast advocate” for students, parents and schools in a statement and said she is a “proven leader” who is “championing our kids in the Department of Public Instruction.”
The political environment and working with the Legislature
During her term in office, Underly and the agency have regularly come into contention with the Republican-led Legislature on a variety of issues. Just last week, representatives from the agency testified against several Republican bills, including one to reverse test score changes and limit how schools can spend their money.
Despite the disagreements, Underly said that she’s been able to work with lawmakers during her term. She said the literacy law is one example.
However, Wright cited the communication challenges that the agency has had with lawmakers, school districts and others. He said he would try to minimize partisanship, so that more conversations can be had between the agency and lawmakers.
Underly said communication with lawmakers is an issue that the agency has been working on, and brushed back some of Wright’s critique.
“It’s entirely comical that the male candidate in this race thinks that he’s going to have better luck with the Legislature…,” Underly said. “It’s really insulting that this, you know, this male candidate, thinks he can come in and undermine my leadership and call me a bad communicator.”
Underly said that when she speaks with lawmakers individually and when people on her team speak with them it’s clear that they agree on a lot, but that politics and polarization can get in the way. She noted that most lawmakers want healthy kids, high quality public schools and communities in rural and urban areas.
Underly said in a second term she would continue to work on improving the relationships and is hopeful that new faces in the Legislatures will help.
“We need people in the Legislature who will fight for public schools, too. That’s really what it comes down to,” Underly said. “I think we have to understand that it doesn’t matter who’s in the seat, if you’re a public school advocate, it’s always gonna be a struggle.”
In discussing the politicization of education, Underly called attention to the recent actions being taken by the federal government at the instruction of President Donald Trump. She said the actions are “chaotic” and “cruel.”
“The things that they’re axing and cutting and slashing are programs that are meant to help kids,” Underly said. She pointed to Head Start programs and the freeze on payments that have been affecting child care centers across the country, including in Wisconsin. “We look at the programs that they’re cutting like these that are helping the most vulnerable kids so that they can be successful, healthy adults.”
The administration is also considering eliminating the Department of Education, and Underly warned that people need to be prepared.
“If he says that’s what he’s going to do, we have to believe them… I don’t think people realize all the different things the Department of Education administers,” Underly said. She noted many programs work to ensure certain people have equal access to education, including kids and families in poverty, students with disabilities, English language learners, Native American students, kids in rural areas and girls.
“There’s so many protections in place… I think of the funding that our schools get, our state gets money from the Department of Ed. I don’t know if the state Legislature would be willing to fill those gaps,” Underly said. “There’s a lot to be concerned about.”
Trump has also signed executive orders that attempt to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion in government, the private sector and schools. He has also eliminated a policy that stopped Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from going to “sensitive areas” — a decision that opens schools up to immigration raids.
Underly said her “North Star” is focused on “creating safe, welcoming environments where every child feels valued and respected, where every child feels they belong so they can thrive.” She said DPI trusts schools and educators to work closely with families and communities to support all students, though the agency is also providing guidance.
“I’m going to always stand up for kids, especially your most vulnerable kids, and just remind people to stay focused on what matters,” Underly said. “We’re going to follow the law, and we gave them the guidance that will help them.”
The primary election is Tuesday, Feb. 18, and the general election is on Tuesday, April 1.
Education consultant Brittany Kinser says the recent changes to the way Wisconsin reading and math scores are calculated motivated her to enter the race for state schools superintendent.
Kinser is running against incumbent Superintendent Jill Underly, a Democrat, and Sauk Prairie Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright, a Democrat, in the race for the nonpartisan office. The primary for the state superintendent election is Feb. 18 with early voting underway. The top two vote getters will advance to the general election.
Kinser was debating as late as December about whether to enter the race, she said, when a Milwaukee school leader, whom she declined to name, helped her make a decision.
“[He] said, ‘I heard, you’re not going to run. … Who’s going to be the voice for our kids?’” Kinser said in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’”
Kinser, prior to entering the race, called herself a “Blue Dog Democrat” according to WisPolitics, however she hasn’t embraced the label since. She recently called herself a “moderate” on 1130 WISN, saying she has voted for Republicans and Democrats before and attended the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. Her campaign manager is Amy Loudenbeck, a former Republican state lawmaker and former School Choice Wisconsin leader.
Kinser said the decision to change to how test scores are measured was “unacceptable.” Those changes included new terms to describe student achievement and changes to cut scores, which are the minimum scores needed to qualify for certain achievement labels.
“When I heard that they lowered the standards, my response was like, that’s not good for kids. That might make adults feel OK … but that’s not what’s best for kids,” Kinser said. “Kids know if they can’t read, all colleges and their employers will know that they can’t read well enough when they graduate, and so when that happened, I knew I needed to do something. I [can’t] just sit on the sidelines and complain about it.”
While opponents have said the changes “lowered” the state’s standards, DPI and Underly have repeatedly defended the new scores, saying educators helped develop them and the changes were needed to better align the state’s standardized tests with its curriculum standards.
Kinser has said she supports reversing the changes, and is running to “restore high standards” in Wisconsin.
Literacy is one of Kinser’s top priorities and she has said that more needs to be done to ensure students are able to read, pointing to recent results on the Nation’s Report Card.
“It doesn’t have to be three out of 10 [who aren’t proficient in reading]. It can be 95% of our children. It’s possible,” Kinser said.
When it comes to supporting literacy efforts, Kinser said that the state needs to ensure that teachers have “evidence-based curriculum” and are getting support, including through coaching and professional development.
Kinser named Louisiana and Mississippi as examples of states that Wisconsin could take notes from — both states that have seen improvements in reading scores on national assessments.
“They’re doing that in Louisiana, and they have a portfolio of choices for schools. They’re focusing on the kids… we need to focus on making sure our teachers have the support they need, the curriculum as an evidence-based curriculum, so that our kids are getting the instruction and then there is transparency around results,” Kinser said.
Wisconsin has been taking steps to change reading, including by passing a law that was negotiated in part by DPI with Underly at the helm. The law sought to push Wisconsin schools towards a “science of reading” approach to teaching literacy, and dedicated $50 million to support the efforts, though the majority of the money is still being withheld by the state Legislature.
Kinser said that the law was a “great first step,” and said she would want to build on that. She said there needs to be accountability to ensure that schools are adopting new curriculum and not using “three-cueing” — a way of teaching reading that relies on context, structure and letters to identify words — as it was banned under the new law.
“We can continue to build on that, but we also can make sure that we are supporting the schools and implementing it, and also celebrating the schools and making data really clear to see where we’re at, because it really should be about how the students are learning,” Kinser said.
Kinser’s school choice background & view on its role in Wisconsin education
Kinser, if elected, would take the position with a different background compared to her opponents. As first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kinser has never had a Wisconsin teaching license and her principal’s license lapsed last year.
Kinser said at a WisPolitics forum last week that she is qualified for the job even with her lack of license, and pointed to her other experiences as an educator.
The majority of Kinser’s education experiences in Wisconsin have not been at traditional public schools. Currently, Kinser serves as CEO of Kinser Consulting, LLC and she recently helped start a literacy initiative in Wisconsin.
Prior to this, Kinser served as the CEO and President of the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit advocacy group that works to ensure “every child has the opportunity to attend a high-quality school” with a mission statement that says it seeks to support Milwaukee public, charter and private voucher schools.
According to Wisconsin’s lobbying website, Kinser was registered from January 2023 until January 2024 as a lobbyist for the organization, which spent over 538 hours and $148,000 lobbying in 2023-2024.
During 2023, the organization spent the majority of its time lobbying in support of SB 330, now 2023 Wisconsin Act 11, which increased per pupil funding for choice programs, and its companion bill AB 305. The group spent a total 236 hours in 2023 lobbying for the bills.
Last session, the group also registered in support of 2023 AB 688 and AB 900, a pair of bills that would have implemented a decoupling policy in Wisconsin. The policy would separate the state’s voucher programs from public school districts and fund them using state general purpose revenue.
Kinser said she continues to support the policy of “decoupling,” which didn’t pass the Legislature last session.
Kinser has also served as principal and executive director of Rocketship schools in Milwaukee, part of an entrepreneurial network of charter schools that started in the Silicon Valley and has been at the center of public debate about privatization of public schools. Kinser has also served as a special education teacher in Chicago.
Kinser has claimed the title of the “only pro-school choice” candidate in the race, and she said her experiences as an educator shaped her views on the school choice program in Wisconsin.
“Parents should have choices for their children,” Kinser said. She noted that parents in Wisconsin “overwhelmingly choose their neighborhood schools in the state” and called open enrollment, which is a policy that allows students to attend a public school outside of their residential school district, the largest school choice program in Wisconsin.
“What I see happening right now is everyone wants to focus on vouchers, but that’s just… a scholarship for children to go to a private school. That’s just one small part,” Kinser said.
Asked about whether she wants to see changes in funding for voucher schools, Kinser noted that students who receive vouchers to attend private schools in Milwaukee “do not get as much money as the students that are going to MPS.”
As a leader of the City Forward Collective, Kinser celebrated the historic increases in funding for Wisconsin’s voucher programs in the last state budget as a win for “parent power” in an opinion piece in 2023.
“We want to make sure all of our kids are getting a great education, and so the funding for elementary school children that receive private vouchers is much lower than if they were going to a traditional public school, so I would be an advocate for kids getting more money, yes, and making sure that’s fair.”
Public school funding
As state superintendent, Kinser would be responsible for overseeing 421 public school districts across the state, and funding for those schools has become an increasing concern for many in recent years, especially as more school districts have turned to voters to ask them to raise their property taxes to help cover education costs.
Kinser pointed to a controversial partial veto by Gov. Tony Evers in the last budget that extended a $325 increase in its school revenue limits each year for the next four centuries into the future. She said, given this increase in what school districts are allowed to raise from local taxpayers and spend on each pupil (which does not come with any increase in state aid), she is more concerned about ensuring that there is transparency about where money is being allocated and “making sure that it’s getting into the classroom.
“My priority is in the classroom to our teachers, and we are getting more money every year,” Kinser said.
Kinser said that she does want to see more investment in special education, though she didn’t say how much of an increase there should be. The state of Wisconsin currently covers only about 33% of public schools’ special education costs, leaving school districts to cut programs and find other ways to come up with money to cover this federally mandated expense.
“We need to figure out what is possible for funding for special education. We can’t put a number out there that’s not going to happen,” Kinser said.
Kinser said that ensuring a “good relationship” between DPI, the Legislature and Evers’ office would be necessary to figure this out. She said she doesn’t think the whole state surplus, which was most recently estimated to be $4.3 billion, will go towards education, even if that’s her first priority.
She said that she already has a “strong rapport” with Evers and the Legislature, and will continue to strengthen those relationships as well as others.
“Kids need an advocate, and their families and our educators, and part of that is being able to have relationships, building relationships with both sides of the aisle, and… being able to have relationships with everyone,” Kinser said.
Kinser said she wants to see additional investment in rural education, including transportation.
Navigating politics and education
Kinser said that she doesn’t think that politics belongs in Wisconsin schools.
“When I interviewed to be a principal or a special ed teacher… no one ever asked me if I was a Republican or Democrat, I would have been appalled and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this school doesn’t have their priorities in order, like, why are they asking me this?’ I gotta work with all the kids, no matter who their parents are.”
The DPI, however, will likely have to navigate politically charged issues in the coming years. One issue is diversity, equity and inclusion, which has become a highly discussed topic again as the new administration of President Donald Trump has sought to eliminate DEI in government, the private sector and schools.
Kinser said she thinks every student should feel safe and welcome in the classroom, but that cultural issues, including diversity, equity and inclusion, are something that should be handled by individual districts.
“Wisconsin is a local control state, and I think it is really important that parents are working with their school districts and school board to decide on those issues, on the culture issues,” Kinser said. “I don’t think you can have someone from Madison telling all different school districts what to do with each of their cultures.”
The Trump administration is also considering attempting to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Kinser said that she doesn’t know whether that will happen but would want to ensure Wisconsin continues to receive its federal funding.
“My big thing is making sure that the money that we get for… that we’ve been getting really — Title I and special education — still flows to our state so that we can use that money,” Kinser said. “I think the funding is the biggest issue that everyone I’ve talked to here is most concerned about, so making sure that that money still comes into our state.”
The primary election is Tuesday, Feb. 18, and the general election is on Tuesday, April 1.
Jeff Wright and Brittany Kinser participated in a WisPolitics forum on Thursday. Screenshot via WisEye.
State schools superintendent Jill Underly, who is running for her second term in office, didn’t attend a forum hosted by WisPolitics Thursday, where her opponents used the opportunity to answer questions about issues including literacy initiatives, cell phones in the classroom, Department of Public Instruction operations and school funding.
Underly told CBS58 Thursday morning that she wasn’t attending the forum because she was “double booked” and plans to participate in debates after the primary.
The primary for the nonpartisan race is set for Feb. 18. The two candidates with the most votes will advance to the April 1 general election.
Brittany Kinser, a former charter school principal and former executive director of the City Forward Collective, a nonprofit that advocates for “ensuring every child has the opportunity to attend a high-quality school” and seeks to support Milwaukee public, charter, and private voucher schools, entered the race for state superintendent in January on a platform that emphasizes improving reading and math education in Wisconsin.
Kinser’s campaign manager Amy Loudenbeck said in a statement that the “education establishment is running scared because Brittany Kinser is a reform-minded outsider who has what it takes to fix the broken education system in Wisconsin.”
“Brittany‘s opponents have nothing to offer Wisconsin voters besides more of the same and will not create the change we need for our kids,” Loudenbeck said.
After the forum, her qualification became a point of discussion due to a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that highlighted that Kinser has never had a Wisconsin teacher’s license and that her administrator’s license expired last year.
Kinser called the licensing issue a “distraction.”
“I am qualified for this job,” Kinser said. “I’ve been in education for 25 years.”
Sauk Prairie Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright told reporters that he thinks a state superintendent should have an active teaching license to be effective. He noted that he has his teaching, principal and superintendent licenses.
During the forum, Kinser and Wright talked about the role of the state’s voucher programs in the scope of the education landscape. Kinser, an outspoken advocate for school choice, said she was supportive of school vouchers.
“There are children and families that use the scholarship to go to school. We’re talking about children and families,” Kinser said. “I’m pro-school choice, yes.”
Wright said there needs to be more accountability and transparency when it comes to voucher schools in Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin has chosen to have a statewide voucher program. What it hasn’t done very well is teach how it’s paid for,” Wright said. “If we’re going to have a program like this in the state, I think the taxpayers deserve the transparency of knowing how much it’s costing.”
Wright said that he wants to see more consistent accountability measures.
“There are many reasons why I’m anti-voucher, but the state superintendent doesn’t determine whether or not there is a voucher system,” Wright added.
Kinser, in response, said that she is “the only school choice candidate.” and said that she wanted there “transparency across all of the schools for all of our children.”
“I think it’s easy to pick on one school but there are hundreds of schools,” Kinser said.
Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, speaks Tuesday at a press conference about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. With him are, from left, Sam Liebert of All Voting is Local and Nick Ramos of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. (Photo by Erik Gunn/Wisconsin Examiner)
A former U.S. Capitol Police officer who survived the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack said Tuesday the insurrection must not be forgotten four years later — and candidates running for election now should face up to what happened then.
“This attempt to whitewash, downplay, normalize what happened on Jan. 6 is ongoing and shows no signs of letting up,” said Harry Dunn during a meeting with reporters in Madison.
Criticizing Republicans who have urged Democrats and the public “to move on from Jan. 6,” Dunn said the attack met the definition of an insurrection — “a violent uprising against the government. Full stop.”
“That’s what Jan. 6 was,” he added. “The police officers just happened to be in the way. But anybody that fails to accept that, acknowledge that for what that was, deserves to be called out, condemned.”
Pro-democracy advocates arranged for Dunn to speak to the press in the state Capitol building and deliberately chose one particular meeting room on the third floor — 300 South, the same room used by Republican fake electors in December 2020 who filled out false electoral votes choosing Donald Trump as the Wisconsin winner of an election that he lost.
The fake elector scheme “was hatched in Wisconsin and launched from here to the rest of the United States,” said Scott Thompson, a staff attorney for Law Forward, at Tuesday’s press conference.
The nonprofit law firm sued Wisconsin’s fake electors and won a settlement in which they acknowledged in writing they had tried “to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential elections results.” The scheme culminated in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, Thompson said.
“The events of Jan. 6, 2021, were not just an attack on a building or a single moment in time, but they were an attack on our collective voice as voters,” said Sam Liebert, Wisconsin director of the voting rights group All Voting is Local Action. “The insurrection was a brazen and egregious attempt to silence millions of Americans nationwide to overturn the results of a free and fair election through violence and intimidation.”
Four years later in 2024 Trump won the U.S. popular vote, including a 30,000-vote majority in Wisconsin, returning him to the White House effective Jan. 20. There one of his first acts was to pardon more than 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6 attack.
Dunn’s visit to Wisconsin focused on Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel’s comments about the Jan. 6 defendants, including during a recent radio interview. Schimel is a Waukesha County circuit court judge and former Wisconsin attorney general.
In a Jan. 2 appearance on the Vicki McKenna show, Schimel said that Jan. 6 defendants didn’t have “a fair shot” when they were tried andblamed “lawfare manipulation” for the conviction of defendants in the attack.
Schimel suggested they would have been acquitted had they not been put on trial in “overwhelmingly liberal” Washington, D.C., and that the prosecutors appointed under the Democratic administration “would never take their prosecution in a district where you had a fair shot as a defendant.”
The federal government prosecuted the rioters in Washington because the city is where the U.S. Capitol is located.
Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, mentioned Schimel’s radio interview before introducing Dunn.
“Four years ago, far-right mobs swarmed the Capitol, assaulted officers and tried to overturn the will of voters,” said Ramos. “It’s pretty straightforward, and yet Schimel, our former attorney general, still thinks these people weren’t given a fair shot and their trials were political gamesmanship.”
Dunn said he’s taken an interest in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race because of Schimel’s comments.
“I’ve been fighting for accountability from day one,” Dunn said. He holds Donald Trump primarily responsible for the riot.
“That accountability won’t happen,” he said. But he added that he also wants to hold accountable “public officials who believe that Donald Trump’s pardoning of these individuals was OK” — including Schimel.
“I don’t know Brad Schimel’s positions on policy on anything else, except for that he is OK with supporting the rioters who attacked me and my coworkers, period,” Dunn said. “And that is not OK — and that’s what’s bringing me here.”
During anews conference Monday featuring his endorsement by Wisconsin Republican members of Congress, Schimel accused prosecutors of overcharging some Jan. 6 defendants until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the law under which they were charged didn’t apply to them.
He also said that “anyone who engaged in violence and Jan. 6, assaulted a police officer, resisted arrest, those people should have been prosecuted … and judges should impose sentences that are just under the circumstances.”
Schimel also defended the president’s power to issue pardons: “It’s a power they have. I don’t object to them utilizing that.”
Dunn was asked Tuesday about Schimel’s comments.
“If you believe that the individuals who attacked police officers should serve their sentence, then the only response to Donald Trump’s pardons should be that they’re wrong,” Dunn replied. “He should not pardon them — and those words did not come out of [Schimel’s] mouth. So he’s attempting to play both sides.”
In an interview, Dunn said he’s kept going despite disappointment at Trump’s 2024 victory because “I believe in doing what’s right.”
That’s what led him to become a police officer, he said, and after the Capitol attack, to mount an unsuccessful campaign for Congress. He also has a political action committee, raising funds to support political candidates who are pro-democracy, he said.
Dunn acknowledged that some who opposed the president have given up in despair while others have become embittered toward Trump voters.
“I’ve seen people say, ‘You know what? This is what you all voted for. You get what you deserve,’” he said. “There are a lot of people who did not vote for this, that are going to be impacted by the things that Donald Trump and this administration are going to do, and I believe they deserve somebody that’s going to fight for them.”
There will be elections this year, in 2026 and 2028, all opportunities for change, “so I encourage people,” Dunn said. “And I think part of my work is to make sure people are educated before Election Day and not outraged after Election Day.”
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