State Superintendent Jill Underly will face primary challenge in February

Three candidates have filed nomination papers for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, which means there will be a primary election next month for Wisconsin’s top education post. 

State Superintendent Jill Underly has two challengers: Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Jeff Wright, and Brittany Kinser, a former special education teacher and reading advocate. 

The primary will be held Feb. 18 with the top two candidates facing each other in the nonpartisan election on April 1. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission will officially determine ballot placement for the candidates during the Jan. 14 meeting.

Underly is seeking a second term. She has served as Department of Public Instruction secretary since 2021. 

She was previously the superintendent of the Pecatonica School District in southwestern Wisconsin.

In her role, Underly has prioritized special education, mental health and improving nutrition in schools. As state superintendent, she says she has seen the inequity in schools across the state.

“There are a lot of schools that aren’t able to offer the opportunities that some other schools are able to,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “I wanted to get into this role so I could advocate to get all those resources to our kids and so they can be successful, and then our state to be successful going forward too.”

Over the last several weeks, Underly has rolled out her proposed budget, which would add $4 billion in new spending for public education. A portion of that would include increasing the special education reimbursement rate to 90 percent by 2027.

The current reimbursement rate is 31.5 percent.

Republican leaders have already signaled they will not approve the new spending for education.

Underly said the budget request is based on need.

“We’ve been underfunding our schools for the last 10 plus years, and it’s time we fix that — making sure we get sustainable revenue so that our school districts don’t have to go to referendum,” she said, “because that’s not equitable.”

Challengers are both educators

Wright is a lifelong educator originally from Stevens Point. He has the backing of the political action committee of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state teachers’ union.

Wright says public schools work better when they work with their communities. He believes the current Department of Public Instruction has gotten too partisan.

Wright said Sauk County is purple, and working across the political spectrum has made it possible to address problems such as mental health and child care.

“How exciting it would be to be that type of leader at the state level, and to bring that sort of nonpartisan work back to public education, which is, I think, what most people want,” Wright said. “I believe most of us want the same things for our communities and our schools. We just need a DPI that’s going to be open to listening.”

Wright ran as a Democrat for the Wisconsin Assembly in 2018, losing by just 332 votes to State Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville. 

Kinser, of Wauwatosa, now leads her own consulting firm. Before that, she was the head of Wisconsin’s Rocketship Schools, which is part of a national network of public charter schools. 

Kinser was also the past president of City Forward Collective, a Milwaukee-based education nonprofit that advocates for charter and voucher schools. 

Kinser was not available for an interview. In her campaign material, she says she’s dedicated to “restoring high academic standards and making sure children have the skills they will need to succeed in college, trade school, or work.” 

While the race is nonpartisan, Kinser’s campaign staff includes former Republican state Rep. Amy Loudenbeck. Loudenbeck was the director of policy and government affairs at School Choice Wisconsin until July 2024.