By Canadian Press

Incumbent Democratic-backed Wisconsin education chief Underly advances in primary

Feb 18, 2025 | 8:52 PM

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Democratic-backed incumbent state schools leader advanced in Tuesday’s three-person primary, overcoming challenges from a union-backed superintendent and an advocate for private schools supported by Republicans.

The position leading Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction guides education policy in the battleground state and will be under heightened scrutiny in President Donald Trump’s second term.

Jill Underly, currently serving her first term as state superintendent, advanced to the April 1 general election. She will face either Republican-backed Brittany Kinser or Jeff Wright, who has cut into Underly’s traditional base of support.

Underly was first elected in 2021 with the support of Democrats and teachers unions, and she has tried to position herself as the champion for public schools. She was endorsed by the Wisconsin Democratic Party, which also has given her campaign $106,000 this month, and a host of Democratic officeholders.

But the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the statewide teachers union, did not endorse a candidate in the primary. The political action committee for the union recommended that Wright be endorsed.

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Wright is a two-time Democratic candidate for state Assembly. He won the endorsements of the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators and the Middleton-Cross Plains teachers union.

Kinser, an education consultant and advocate for the private voucher school choice program, is backed by Republicans, including the state party, which has given her campaign $200,000 so far.

Wisconsin is the only state where voters elect the top education official but there is no state board of education. That gives the person who runs the Department of Public Instruction broad authority to oversee education policy, which includes dispersing money to schools and managing teacher licensing.

Whoever wins will have to manage Wisconsin’s relationship with the Trump administration as it seeks to eliminate the federal Department of Education, which supports roughly 14% of public school budgets nationwide with an annual budget of $79 billion.

Scott Bauer, The Associated Press