When State Superintendent Jill Underly launched Wisconsin’s “Portrait of a Graduate” initiative in late May, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) flooded the media with a carefully crafted narrative. Local press outlets quickly repeated the agency’s claims that this massive effort to redefine success in Wisconsin public education was being guided by a robust, diverse coalition of employers and industry representatives from every corner of the state.
But a document uncovered by the Dairyland Sentinel reveals a starkly different reality. Behind the public relations curtain lies a pattern of administrative stonewalling, a total absence of selection standards, and a steering committee that, despite public claims, barely shows any concern about Wisconsin’s employers’ needs.
The Broken Promise of Business Representation
DPI’s May press release explicitly boasted that the initiative was being guided by “employers and representatives from industries across Wisconsin.”
The actual roster tells a different story. Out of the 27 names provided by the state, there is exactly one private-sector employer listed: Anne Troka from Sargento. The rest of the list is heavily weighted with institutional insiders, public school administrators, and state agency bureaucrats. Even state agencies tasked with workforce development, such as the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), sent government officials rather than actual job creators.
On DPI’s website, it describes the role and make up of the steering committee:
Phase 2: Steering Committee Launch
Next, DPI convenes a diverse steering committee to co-design the statewide engagement process. Facilitated by AASA, the committee includes partners from across Wisconsin, such as other state agencies, family and student advocacy groups, institutions of higher education, and workforce representatives.
The Bureaucratic Stall
Too many reporters trust what the agencies are selling. I asked questions.
The effort to obscure the true makeup of this committee began on day one. On May 26, 2026, the day of the public announcement, the Dairyland Sentinel submitted a straightforward media inquiry to DPI Director of Communications Chris Bucher. The request was direct:
“[p]lease direct me to or provide the list of the steering committee members for the Portrait of a Graduate initiative. Also, please provide information regarding how the committee members were selected and when/how they met.”
Instead of answering these basic operational questions, which is a standard responsibility for a public information officer, Bucher shunted the inquiry into the state’s formal public records request portal.
Shifting a routine press question into the statutory open records track is a classic government delay tactic. It allowed DPI to avoid answering immediate questions during the launch week, effectively killing the immediate news cycle and buying the department weeks of silence while they promoted their unvetted narrative through friendly channels.
Mission accomplished. The department received glowing coverage as reporters simply cut and pasted DPI’s press release into their coverage.
What Was the Selection Process?
Now, nearly a month later, DPI’s legal counsel has finally been forced to answer. The response from DPI Attorney Justin Brewer exposes exactly why the department wanted to delay the revelation: they overhyped the initiative, and their public statements do not match the facts.
The selection process for this influential steering committee is a total mystery. DPI admits that it has no official records, rubrics, or communications explaining why or how these specific individuals were chosen to dictate state education goals.
“Unfortunately, there are no records that are responsive to your request for information as to how the committee members were selected,” Brewer stated in writing.
They also failed to provide information about how, when or where this steering committee met to steer this effort.
“DPI has produced all records responsive to your request, and will close the request at this time,” Brewer concluded in his email this morning.
For a highly touted and publicly hyped statewide initiative, the complete lack of a paper trail is stunning. It leaves the public to conclude that the committee was arbitrarily assembled behind closed doors to rubber-stamp a pre-determined agenda.
Sound familiar?
PR Spin vs. Documented Reality
The gap between what the Department of Public Instruction and Superintendent Jill Underly told the public and what their own records prove is substantial.
Let’s break it down.
| DPI’s Public Relations Spin | The Documented Reality |
| Industry Representation: Claimed the initiative is guided by a diverse group of “employers and representatives from industries across Wisconsin.” | The Roster: Exactly one private-sector employer is on the list. The remaining seats are dominated by government personnel and school administrators. |
| Rigorous Process: Promoted a strategic, collaborative effort to build a new educational framework for the modern workforce. | No Standards: DPI possesses zero documents, criteria, or memos showing how or why any committee members were chosen or when and where they met to ‘steer’ this effort. |
| Open Communication: Claimed to welcome broad public input and transparent statewide engagement. | The Stall: Several public hearings have been held as the process is being steered mostly by public employees and insiders. Communications Director Chris Bucher buried a same-day media inquiry in a legal portal to delay releasing the committee roster to journalists. |
When a state agency shuts out the independent business community while fabricating a narrative of wide-ranging industry support, it undermines public trust.
Ditto for their lack of transparency with any citizen or reporter who dares to actually ask questions.
One would think a true blueprint for graduate success requires real insight from the job creators who drive Wisconsin’s economy. Instead, out of the 27 names provided by the state, the education establishment has chosen to grade its own work in an insulated room with just a single private employer at the table.
Armed with this new revelation, Dairyland Sentinel will ask lawmakers and job creators what they now think of the “Portrait of a Graduate” effort, DPI’s continued secrecy, and whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth out of the agency.
Editors in newsrooms across the state may wish to ask their reporters why they unquestionably reprint DPI’s press releases. But that’s on them
The Dairyland Sentinel will continue to demand transparency from DPI and track how the department shapes education policy out of the public eye.
The “Portrait of a Graduate” Steering Committee Roster
According to official public records provided to Dairyland Sentinel by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the following individuals were documented as the participants steering the initiative:
Previously at Dairyland Sentinel
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