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 of the steering committee: