MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin voters on Tuesday will choose two candidates to advance in the nonpartisan race for state superintendent.
Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Jeff Wright and education consultant Brittany Kinser are challenging incumbent Jill Underly for the job. In interviews with TMJ4, Wright and Kinser discussed their qualifications and some of the top issues facing the Department of Public Instruction. An interview with Underly was canceled because of bad weather and she was unable to reschedule before the primary.
Experience and endorsements
Jill Underly is running for her second term as state superintendent. She has more than 25 years of experience both as a teacher and administrator. She holds a doctorate from UW-Madison and lives in Hollandale. She has faced criticism for lowering the state’s standardized testing benchmarks and not alerting community members and local leaders about a financial crisis at Milwaukee Public Schools. Her campaign website touts Wisconsin’s increased graduation rates during her tenure, as well as her work on a bipartisan literacy overhaul that was passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by the governor. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is backing Underly.
Jeff Wright, who currently leads the Sauk Prairie School District, was previously a principal at a high school on Chicago’s south side. He has also run for state Assembly as a Democrat. Wright grew up in Stevens Point, where both his parents were teachers. He holds a master’s from Harvard University and was named the 2024 Administrator of the Year by the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance. The Association of Wisconsin School Administrators has endorsed Wright.
Brittany Kinser is an education consultant from Wauwatosa. She previously led charter schools in the Milwaukee area and worked at schools in Chicago and California. She is the only candidate who supports school choice programs. The Republican Party of Wisconsin has thrown its support behind Kinser to the tune of $200,000. She currently holds a wide lead over her opponents in terms of fundraising.
Watch: Meet the state superintendent candidates facing off in Tuesday’s primary
Lower testing standards
Underly’s Department of Public Instruction lowered the benchmarks for Wisconsin’s standardized testing last summer, drawing backlash from politicians and educators who say the changes make students appear to be doing better than they are. Education officials and researchers have also said the new scale makes it almost impossible to compare data from year to year. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who set the previous standards when he was state superintendent, criticized Underly’s lack of transparency in making that decision.
Underly has stood by the changes, saying they better reflect student performance.
Kinser says she entered the race specifically because of the lower testing standards. “I’m running to restore the high standards and make sure we’re focusing on reading, writing, and math so kids can get a meaningful job, attend college, or master a trade,” she said.
“I think that it was a mistake to lower the standards, but it was a really big mistake to lower the standards when DPI chose to,” Wright said. “We have been spending the last three years working so hard to help students recover from any learning loss as a result of the pandemic. The only way we can assess whether we helped move students out of any loss that they had is by having a common benchmark year after year.”
Funding for schools
All three candidates agree that Wisconsin schools should receive more state aid, but they differ on how much and where that money should be directed.
Underly has requested a massive $4 billion school spending increase that would eat up almost all of the state’s budget surplus. Democrats and Republicans alike have acknowledged that amount is unrealistic.
Underly, Wright and Kinser have each said they want lawmakers to increase the state’s reimbursement rate for the costs of special education, as well as revisit the state’s education funding formula. Underly’s proposal would bring the special education reimbursement rate up to 90%. Wright says he wants to see the state cover at least 60% of those costs.
“Our funding system is broken,” Wright said. “The biggest piece of evidence that our funding system is broken is the overreliance on property taxes and local referenda to fund our schools.”
Kinser said she also wants to increase the state’s reimbursement rate for rural transportation costs.
Working with divided government
Whoever wins the race will have to work with a divided state government. Underly has had a rocky relationship with Republicans who control the state Legislature. She’s gotten along better with the governor, though Evers, a former state superintendent, has been critical of some of her decisions.
“I’m fortunate that I get to be a superintendent in the most purple county in the state, and so the work that we do in Sauk Prairie has to be intentionally nonpartisan,” Wright said. “I hope to bring that same attitude and perspective to the Legislature and I’m glad that I do have relationships with legislators on both sides of the aisle.”
“I have worked with the Legislature and the governor’s office in the past for kids, and I will continue to maintain and build those relationships because we have to,” Kinser said.
Teacher recruitment and retention
DPI reported last year that four out of every 10 new teachers in Wisconsin either leave the state or the profession within their first six years on the job. “Our education workforce is in crisis,” Underly said at the time. “Solving this challenge starts with upholding the state’s responsibility of funding our public schools. We have the resources, and we owe it to our kids to do more.” Underly has pushed for higher wages for teachers.
Kinser said she supports creating new pathways to licensure for aspiring teachers, especially working professionals who want to change careers into education. “We have to allow our schools to be able to create those different pathways,” she said. She also supports merit pay for teachers.
Wright said loan forgiveness programs and incentives for teachers to remain in Wisconsin could help with retention, but his primary focus is the working environment in schools. “Making sure that teachers know that they are respected and valued members in our community, that has a huge impact on whether or not people stay in the field,” he said.
Immigration enforcement in schools
As state superintendent, Underly has voiced her opposition to immigration enforcement actions taking place at schools. “These policies threaten the very core of our educational system and erode the values that define us as a nation,” she said in a statement.
Both Kinser and Wright agreed that immigration enforcement officials should not enter schools to carry out detainers.
“I do not feel that schools should be a place where immigration should come and take a child from our care without that parent being involved. Parents trust us to be taking care of their children,” Wright said. “That child has a Supreme Court-guided right to a public education.”
“It’s really important that our children have a good relationship with law enforcement, that there is calm in the school, and that children and teachers are able to focus on the learning. So, I don’t think ICE has any room in a school,” Kinser said.
Working with Milwaukee Public Schools
Milwaukee Public Schools has faced a range of serious issues from financial mismanagement and late reports to the state, to low academic performance and chronic absenteeism.
Underly’s DPI has been working with the district to hold it accountable to its corrective action plan, but Underly has also been criticized for not warning the public sooner about the financial issues MPS was facing.
“My plan is to make sure we have a DPI office in Milwaukee, we are partnering with MPS on best practices, being very transparent about results for kids, making sure we have the best practices,” Kinser said. “We have to start putting our children first.”
“The way that this was handled has real costs,” Wright said. “I hope that I can be a much better partner to talk about how other districts have turned around their academic performance.”
Notifying parents if a child changes their pronouns
Republican Wisconsin lawmakers have previously proposed legislation that would allow parents to determine which pronouns are used for their child at school. Underly has previously opposed similar restrictions on the ability of educators to exercise their own judgment. She has also issued statements in support of transgender youth.
“Although our goal will always be to work with parents in those moments, if our decisions as a school team could put that child at risk, or drive that student potentially to self-harm, we need to be working as a team to make sure we’re doing everything possible to keep that kid safe. And that may mean being more cautious with who we’re calling with that information,” Wright said.
“I always think that parents should be included. It’s not a good practice for schools to do things without the parents,” Kinser said. “I do think that schools should be partnering with parents 100% of the time.”
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