Frederica Freyberg:
Despite being a contentious race in its own right, the election for the next superintendent of public schools had nearly 200,000 fewer votes than the Supreme Court. Still, the liberal candidate, Jill Underly, had an almost six-point lead over her opponent, Brittany Kinser.

Jill Underly:
It’s a testament to our shared commitment to ensuring that every child in Wisconsin has access to a high-quality education, regardless of their ZIP code. And together, we’ve championed the belief that public dollars should fund public schools. And tonight, that belief has been reaffirmed. So over the past four years, we’ve made significant strides. We’ve seen our graduation rates reach the highest in state history. And our schools climb to be ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, up from 14th in 2020. We’ve implemented higher standards in math and science, expanded career and technical education, and passed a new bipartisan literacy law to ensure our students are better prepared for the future. But our work is far from over. We face challenges ahead, including navigating the uncertainties brought by changes at the federal level and with the Trump administration hell bent on dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, our role in defending and advocating for public schools becomes even more critical.

Brittany Kinser:
We cannot settle for only three out of ten of our children — I’m sorry, three out of ten children reading well enough to go to college or have a career. We cannot settle for only 5% of our Black children in Milwaukee reading well enough to go to college. It is a reading crisis, and I’m so glad that we were able to elevate this reading crisis so that all of you who are listening to me now will get in this fight for our children.