The April election in Wisconsin includes a race for state school superintendent, who advocates for K-12 education as the leader of the Department of Public Instruction.
Like the state Supreme Court race also on the April 1 ballot, the superintendent election is nonpartisan in name only. The state Democratic and Republican parties have lined up behind their preferred candidates and pumped donations into their campaigns.
Jill Underly, a Democrat, is running for her second term. She faces education consultant Brittany Kinser, who said she considers herself a moderate and is supported by Republicans.
The state superintendent will guide school districts at a critical time. Students are recovering from pandemic-associated learning loss, racial achievement gaps are among the widest in the nation and more districts are going to referendum.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jill Underly, right, answers questions during a civics club forum at West High School Wednesday, March 12, 2025 in Madison, Wisconsin.
But many voters know little about either candidate, according to a Marquette University Law School poll conducted in late February.
About 64% didn’t have an opinion about Underly, compared to 71% for Kinser. Kinser was the least known of the statewide candidates on the April ballot but also had the highest favorability rating.
Here’s what to know about Underly, including her professional experience in education, political affiliation, positions on key issues, and more. This guide may be updated as campaigns continue.
What is Jill Underly’s professional background?
Before being elected state superintendent in 2021, Underly was the superintendent of the Pecatonica School District, southwest of Madison. According to her campaign website, she previously worked as an elementary school principal and a public high school social studies teacher. Underly also worked as an education consultant at DPI and an adviser at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
More: State superintendent Jill Underly, running for reelection, turns down three debate invites
How much money has Jill Underly raised?
Underly has raised at least $196,000, including about $106,000 from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and $53,500 from the Milwaukee teachers union. Updated fundraising reports are due March 24.
More: In Wisconsin school superintendent race, one candidate is far ahead in fundraising
What are Jill Underly’s endorsements?
Underly is endorsed by the Wisconsin Educators Association Council, American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin, Wisconsin AFL-CIO, Network for Public Education Action, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, United Auto Workers and many Democratic officials.
What is Jill Underly’s political party?
While the state superintendent is a nonpartisan position, Underly is a Democrat and is endorsed by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. She was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and spoke at rallies for the Democratic presidential ticket in 2024.
Where does Jill Underly stand on vouchers and school choice?
In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Underly said charter and voucher schools take public dollars without having to ask voters how they’re doing or have locally elected school boards.
“You look at the size of some of the urban school district referendums, the amounts that they need, and it’s really due to the fact that voucher schools are draining our public schools of millions of dollars a year,” Underly said.
What has Jill Underly said about changes to test scores?
Underly came under fire for changing the state’s standardized testing benchmarks and renaming the levels of student achievement in 2024.
Underly says her critics have conflated cut scores with standards to argue standards have lowered. She said the new Forward Exam standards have increased because more challenging material was added while less important material was removed.
“Teachers told us to make these changes so that an actual assessment would mean something. And so, what we did was we measured it based off of where Wisconsin teachers felt Wisconsin kids could be on the Wisconsin test,” Underly said.
More: What to know about Wisconsin’s change in state test scores and the GOP push to restore previous benchmarks
How has Jill Underly responded to issues in Milwaukee Public Schools?
Underly said she doesn’t regret anything about DPI’s response to financial mismanagement within Milwaukee Public Schools because the state did nothing wrong. DPI took the “extraordinary decision” to inform the school board, she said.
“The timing (of the $252 million referendum) was perhaps unfortunate. (But) the school district still needed that money so that they can do their operations and kids could get their programming, and they could pay their teachers. If they were late on the report or not, it wouldn’t matter,” Underly said.
Underly said there would have been no benefit to the DPI getting involved in a local referendum, MPS or otherwise.
Where does Jill Underly stand on school funding referendums?
Underly said school districts “have no other option” but to ask voters to raise taxes when state funding isn’t enough.
“It makes our system much more unequal, because you’re going to have some districts that can pass referendums and others that can’t,” Underly said.
Underly said her $4 billion DPI budget request makes up for a lack of funding increases from the state, including to account for inflation. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers pared that down to $3.15 billion in his proposal, though Republicans are unlikely to approve that amount.
How old is Jill Underly?
Underly is 47.
Where is Jill Underly from?
Underly lives with her husband and two children in Hollandale, a small village about 40 miles southwest of Madison.
Where did Jill Underly go to college?
Underly earned bachelor’s degrees in history and sociology from Indiana University-Bloomington, master’s degrees from IU Indianapolis and UW-Madison, and a doctorate from UW-Madison.
Kelly Meyerhofer of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Who is Jill Underly? Wisconsin school superintendent candidate bio
