Jeff Wright and Brittany Kinser participated in a WisPolitics forum on Thursday. Screenshot via WisEye.
State schools superintendent Jill Underly, who is running for her second term in office, didn’t attend a forum hosted by WisPolitics Thursday, where her opponents used the opportunity to answer questions about issues including literacy initiatives, cell phones in the classroom, Department of Public Instruction operations and school funding.
Underly told CBS58 Thursday morning that she wasn’t attending the forum because she was “double booked” and plans to participate in debates after the primary.
The primary for the nonpartisan race is set for Feb. 18. The two candidates with the most votes will advance to the April 1 general election.
Brittany Kinser, a former charter school principal and former executive director of the City Forward Collective, a nonprofit that advocates for “ensuring every child has the opportunity to attend a high-quality school” and seeks to support Milwaukee public, charter, and private voucher schools, entered the race for state superintendent in January on a platform that emphasizes improving reading and math education in Wisconsin.
Kinser’s campaign manager Amy Loudenbeck said in a statement that the “education establishment is running scared because Brittany Kinser is a reform-minded outsider who has what it takes to fix the broken education system in Wisconsin.”
“Brittany‘s opponents have nothing to offer Wisconsin voters besides more of the same and will not create the change we need for our kids,” Loudenbeck said.
After the forum, her qualification became a point of discussion due to a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that highlighted that Kinser has never had a Wisconsin teacher’s license and that her administrator’s license expired last year.
Kinser called the licensing issue a “distraction.”
“I am qualified for this job,” Kinser said. “I’ve been in education for 25 years.”
Sauk Prairie Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright told reporters that he thinks a state superintendent should have an active teaching license to be effective. He noted that he has his teaching, principal and superintendent licenses.
During the forum, Kinser and Wright talked about the role of the state’s voucher programs in the scope of the education landscape. Kinser, an outspoken advocate for school choice, said she was supportive of school vouchers.
“There are children and families that use the scholarship to go to school. We’re talking about children and families,” Kinser said. “I’m pro-school choice, yes.”
Wright said there needs to be more accountability and transparency when it comes to voucher schools in Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin has chosen to have a statewide voucher program. What it hasn’t done very well is teach how it’s paid for,” Wright said. “If we’re going to have a program like this in the state, I think the taxpayers deserve the transparency of knowing how much it’s costing.”
Wright said that he wants to see more consistent accountability measures.
“There are many reasons why I’m anti-voucher, but the state superintendent doesn’t determine whether or not there is a voucher system,” Wright added.
Kinser, in response, said that she is “the only school choice candidate.” and said that she wanted there “transparency across all of the schools for all of our children.”
“I think it’s easy to pick on one school but there are hundreds of schools,” Kinser said.
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