Julie Underwood and have been active advocates against school privatization and the increasing flow of taxpayer money from public schools into private school vouchers.
The transition in leadership at the Department of Public Instruction on July 5 will mark the first transition at the department in more than 20 years (Gov.
Tony Evers previously led the department, and the current superintendent,
“I’m a public school advocate, I’m an educator and I’m a mom,” Underly told a gathering of public school advocates on Monday. “So I plan to take a different approach.”
That approach will be characterized by “more offense, less defense,” Underly said, and improvements in communication between the state’s education department and the public, including an upgrade to the department’s Byzantine website.