JFC Republicans: State Superintendent Cannot Ignore Legislature on Literacy Changes

JFC Republicans at Odds with Underly

The Republicans who write Wisconsin’s state budget are at odds with the state’s superintendent of schools over a recent supreme court ruling, the separation of powers in Wisconsin, and new rules to help kids in the state’s public schools read better.

JFC co-chairs, Rep Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, on Tuesday told State Superintendent Jill Underly that she cannot ignore them and move ahead with a new literacy curriculum on her own.

"As required by law, you may not adopt the proposed recommendations until either 14 working days have elapsed and you are not notified that this matter was scheduled for a hearing or until the recommendations are adopted or modified by the Joint Committee on Finance," the two wrote in a letter to Underly.

Underly started the standoff last week when she informed Born, Marklein, and the power Joint Finance Committee that she is moving ahead with a new literacy plan from the Early Literacy Curricula Council. Underly also said she planned to bypass the JFC.

"The DPI adopts the Council’s list of early literacy instruction materials for the 2025 – 2026 school year. The DPI will post the list of materials at www.dpi.wi.gov/wi-reads and share information about the list with DPI constituents," Underly wrote in a letter of her own last Friday. "I would also like to call your attention to two ongoing issues with Act 20. First, following the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision in Evers v. Marklein, the DPI will not submit this curricula list to the Joint Committee on Finance for review or approval."

Born and Marklein said Underly is misreading that court case, and cannot ignore the JFC on the new literacy curriculum.

“The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision in Evers v. Marklein does not relieve the Department of Public Instruction from this obligation,” Born and Marklein added in their letter. “In Evers v. Marklein, the Wisconsin Supreme Court opined on the constitutionality of a statute concerning the Joint Committee on Finance’s approval of agency expenditures. The decision in Evers v. Marklein does not concern all approval processes under the Joint Committee on Finance’s purview, and certainly not the approval set forth [in state law.]”

The JFC chiefs say lawmakers now have 14 days to review and comment on Unerly’s new literacy plan. They wrote in their letter that Underly must remove the literacy recommendations she wants from the DPI’s website, and not share any information about them with local schools.