“We need to make sure kids can read, write and do math,” said Brittany Kinser.

“We all want the same thing — we want strong schools,” Dr. Jill Underly said.

In the 2025 race for state superintendent of public instruction – a position that oversees all of Wisconsin’s 400 different public school districts – both candidates say they want what’s best for kids.

“I’m running because I want to make public education better for all kids here in Wisconsin,” said Underly, who is the incumbent state superintendent.

“I want us to really focus on educating our children and making sure that we are transparent about where we’re at,” said Kinser, the challenger in the race.

But what that exactly means for Kinser and Underly are two very different things.

Those different philosophies for how the state’s education system should be led comes, in part, from differences in the two candidates’ educational experiences.

Kinser shared her professional background.

“I was a special ed teacher in Chicago Public Schools for 10 years. I have opened up my own school, where I received an award from then-superintendent Gov. Evers for beating the odds here in Milwaukee. I’ve also been an executive director of a charter network and a CEO of a non-profit,” Kinser said. “And now I’m running an initiative to help more children in Wisconsin become fluent in reading.”

Underly shared her background as well.

“As the incumbent, I feel like I have all the experience. I’m a lifelong public servant. I’m a lifelong teacher and educator. I started teaching social studies, and then I worked my way through different systems, K-12, as well as higher education and in state service,” Underly said. I was also an elementary principal, a high school principal, and a district superintendent here in Wisconsin.”]

New to this election is a major debate over the standards set by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction over how to measure student achievement in reading and math. It started in 2024 when Underly made changes to the state academic testing standards. She said updating these learning benchmarks is a routine practice.

“Every few years we do change standards. We take out some outdated ones and we add new ones — and that was not unusual,” said Underly. “I think the point that became contentious was that we had changed the grading scale because the scoring scale previously was aligned to a different test.”

But Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature say Underly lowered standards to make more students look like they were doing better academically. In mid-March, they sent a bill to Gov. Tony Evers requiring the state to return to using the old academic standards. On March 28, Evers vetoed that bill.

Kinser said the new standards pushed her to run for superintendent.

“We should not be lowering standards. That’s when I got into the race,” she said at a candidates’ forum in early February.

“It’s showing more kids are reading proficiently than they really are, which isn’t being honest, and it’s not being truthful about where our kids are,” Kinser explained in an interview. “It also — because she lowered the standards — we cannot compare to how we were doing before COVID and we know a lot of children fell behind.”

Underly has gotten a lot of heat for that shift from critics who say she lowered standards and that these changes are dumbing down students.

“I absolutely did not do any of that and I think it’s outrageous. It’s an outright lie,” Underly said in reply. “I have very high standards and I always push for very high standards for our students and for our staff. And we actually raised standards when we looked at this last iteration of the test — we added standards in math and science and increased standards by adding a literacy score for our students.”

Another supercharged political topic that divides Kinser and Underly is the state’s school voucher system. In operation for decades – and often referred to as school choice – the program allows taxpayer funds to pay for private school – funds that would normally go to that student’s public school.

Kinser is an advocate for school choice and vouchers – Underly is not.

“I am the only school choice candidate, and I believe there should be transparency across all of the schools for all of our children,” said Kinser.

“We’re talking about children who are living below a certain income — families — and they’re receiving a scholarship to attend a private school,” she added.

Kinser described her perspective in more detail.

“From the testing data, the schools around some of where our families are living are not the best option for their children. So I believe that parents should have that option,” she said.

Underly noted the program at a school event in mid-March.

“School choice actually sounds like a pretty nice thing, doesn’t it? Like who shouldn’t have choice, right? But really what it is in Wisconsin is it’s privatization of public schools,” she said.

Where does Underly stand on the state’s existing voucher school system — does she want to see them cut completely?

“Ultimately, yes. I would like to see it eliminated,” she said.

“We are spending so much money on it that it’s taking money from our public schools.”

As to that matter of money, it is a budget year for the state.

As superintendent, Underly has requested more than $4 billion for the state’s public school system over the 2025-27 biennium. She wants an increase in per student funding, and wants to get closer to fully funding special education costs.

“It is a lot, but it is what our schools need,” said Underly.

She also points to the number of school district referendums around the state.

“Our schools have been underfunded chronically. They have been underfunded and undermined for the past 15 years, and it’s evident by the amount of school districts that are going to referendum, and these referendums are large amounts of money,” Underly said.

Kinser also wants to see an increase in general per student and special education funding. However, she said Underly’s proposal is simply too much.

“I think it’s unrealistic that we’re going to ask for $4 billion when that is the whole surplus, and there’s many other — you know, education is my issue, but there are lots of issues in the state,” she said.

While it will ultimately be up to those in state government to decide how much Wisconsin’s public school system receives, it will be up to voters on April 1 to decide who leads that state school system, helping determine the future for its students.

Editor’s note: The report was updated on March 28 to include additional reporting about Gov. Tony Evers vetoing a bill addressing state testing standards.