State Superintendent Jill Underly won a second term in office Tuesday evening. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Incumbent Jill Underly, who had the backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, won a second term as state superintendent on Tuesday, defeating education consultant and Republican-backed candidate Brittany Kinser.
“I’m just deeply honored and humbled for the trust you have placed in me to continue as state superintendent for public instruction,” Underly told supporters at her Election Night party. “This victory belongs to all of us who believe in the power of public education, but for every educator, family, and most importantly, kids across our state.”
The Associated Press called the race at 10:05 p.m. with Underly leading by more than 5 points and with more than 80% of the votes counted.
Kinser’s campaign released a statement shortly before 10:30 p.m. in which she acknowledged the result was “not the outcome I had hoped for.”
“Our kids’ future shouldn’t rest on the politicization of our education system, but on the belief that our kids deserve so much better than they currently receive,” she said.
The state superintendent, a technically nonpartisan position, is responsible for providing guidance for the state’s 421 public school districts, leading the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) — an agency responsible for administering state and federal funds, licensing teachers and developing educational curriculum and state assessments — and also holds a position on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.
Underly received the endorsement from Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state’s largest teachers’ union, and AFT-Wisconsin. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin contributed over $850,000 to her campaign. While Underly had the backing of the state Democratic party, Democrat Gov. Tony Evers refused to endorse in the race.
WEAC said in a statement that the “victory inspires the public school educators who work with students every day to be even more visible and more involved in education policy deliberations to solve staffing shortages and the state funding crisis that forces communities to referendum every year to keep the schoolhouse doors open” and that the result is a rejection of “the school voucher lobby in favor of educators, so all students – no exceptions – have the opportunity to learn without limits and unlock their dreams.”
Kinser had never worked in a traditional Wisconsin public school and received criticism during the campaign for never holding a Wisconsin teachers’ license and allowing her administrator’s license to lapse, though she eventually updated it. She had also worked mostly in charter school circles in recent years, including as principal and executive director of Rocketship schools in Milwaukee and as a leader of the City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based advocacy group that has lobbied in favor of increasing funding for the state’s voucher program.
Brittney Kinser prepares to addresses the media and supporters the April 2025 election results come in. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
With her background, Kinser, who describes herself as a moderate, found support from Republicans and school choice advocates, receiving over $1.6 million in contributions from the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
While decisive, Underly’s victory was by a narrower margin than her first election in 2021, while Kinser did better than past DPI candidates who have run with the backing of the state’s powerful school choice lobby.
Underly said her takeaway from the closeness of the race is that “we need to just communicate better.”
Throughout the campaign, Underly faced criticism from her opponent, Republicans and others for her recent approval of changes to state testing standards and poor communication with school districts.
“There’s a lot that goes on at the agency that I think in years past, maybe state superintendents took for granted, but I think it’s important that we are communicating more,” Underly told the Wisconsin Examiner.
Underly said that the agency is working on rebuilding its relationship with legislators.
“The Legislature and the relationship with the state superintendent hasn’t always been that great…,” Underly said. “We meet with them frequently. We meet with the governor’s office quite frequently also. I’m just going to go back to the fact that I hope that we all want the same things, regardless of where we are on the political spectrum.”
Underly said that she also respected Evers’ decision not to endorse in the race and that her working relationship with his office is “fine.”
Throughout her campaign, Underly defended her decisions during her first term and said that she has served as “the No. 1 advocate for public education” and will continue to do so. Prior to being elected to the top DPI position, Underly worked as assistant director in DPI. She also previously served as a principal and superintendent of the Pecatonica Area School District and taught in public schools in Indiana.
Underly leaned on her advocacy for public schools while making the argument for her reelection. She introduced a budget request for the state that would have invested over $4 billion in public education, saying that it’s what schools deserved. Republicans and Evers both said it was too large.
Democratic lawmakers said Underly’s victory is a sign of Wisconsinites’ support of public schools and will hopefully bode well for the future of securing improved funding for public education.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) told the Wisconsin Examiner that Underly’s victory was a vindication of her first term in office.
“She’s had to make do with some really tough choices, and she’s done a great job for kids and for teachers,” Hesselbein said.
“We know public schools unite communities, and when we have strong public schools, we have strong communities,” Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) said. “We’ve got a state superintendent who’s going to be looking out for every learner in our state, and so I’m also looking forward to the transparency and accountability that will come with ensuring that public dollars are for public schools.”
Hong said that the lack of communication between Republican lawmakers and Underly is the fault of lawmakers who are not interested in meeting the needs of students. She said that Underly’s win and “Republicans needing to answer to their communities who care about their public schools again” could encourage them to work across the aisle. She noted that Wisconsinites have repeatedly raised their property taxes to ensure schools have funding in lieu of reliable state investments.
Hong also said that she thought Underly’s victory showcased that “public dollars going to private schools was a deep concern for a lot of Wisconsinites.” During her campaign, Underly criticized her opponent for her lobbying for and support for Wisconsin’s school choice programs. She also expressed her opposition to the growth of those programs, saying it is not sustainable for the state to fund two school systems and that she would oppose dedicating more money to private school vouchers.
Underly said it’s clear that her opponent “cares about kids and she cares about kids learning.” and that something she would take away from the race is that “we all want the same things. Ultimately, we want kids to be successful.”
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.”
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.
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