Wide Ruled: The future of Kansas schools with education commissioner Randy Watson
June 7, 2017 | Nathaniel Bozarth
Editor’s note: In partnership with the Wide Ruled podcast hosted by Brainroot Light and Sound, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about innovators in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone.
Wide Ruled is a Kansas City-based podcast focused on equality in education. Each episode showcases a struggle or triumph in working toward a better education system.
Nathaniel Bozarth
In this episode, host Nathaniel Bozarth talks with Kansas Commissioner of Education Randy Watson about the Kansas School redesign initiative — a push for Sunflower State educators to think more entrepreneurially about schools.
Home of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision, Kansas does not historically have the best track record as far as systemic inequality in education goes. Bozarth’s conversation with Watson looks to the future of Kansas education, discussing the Kansans Can vision as well as inequity in Kansas education.
Listen to the conversation in the podcast below.
Nathaniel Bozarth is a regional Emmy-award winning producer with Brainroot Light and Sound. Over the past three years he’s teamed up with Christopher Cook to create engaging documentary content on how race and immigration impact opportunity in America. Wide Ruled is Brainroot’s newest production on this trajectory. @bo_nathaniel
2017 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Deacon: Kansas City evolving into a digital laboratory
Cities have become veritable technology ecosystems where data is amassed from almost everything, from air quality and rainfall patterns to traffic flow and the availability of parking spaces. As we become more familiar with the all-encompassing term “smart city,” we can begin to experiment with the futuristic-but-practical applications for all this data, creating the concept of…
ShotTracker scores partnership with sports equipment giant Spalding
Overland Park, Kan.-based startup ShotTracker will partner with Spalding, the largest basketball equipment supplier in the world, to debut the first multi-player basketball tracking technology. ShotTracker’s technology tracks real-time basketball performance statistics using data from chips embedded in a basketball, players’ shoes, and portable sensors placed around the court. Davyeon Ross, COO of ShotTracker, commented that their…
After waning state support, Kansas Bioscience Authority will go private
A formerly state-backed investment organization for Kansas bioscience businesses will soon be transitioning from a public to private organization. After dwindling support from the State of Kansas, the Kansas Bioscience Authority’s board recently voted unanimously to shift the organization to the private market in 2016, allowing portfolio companies to partner with investors in the private…
Rightfully Sewn founder stitches a vision for Kansas City’s fashion future
Poised, posh and purposeful, Jennifer Lapka Pfeifer sits straight as a board at Kaldi’s coffee shop with unwavering eye contact. Donning a contoured-floral blue and white dress, Lapka smiles as she poetically recalls painting in high school and learning to sew with her grandmother in rural Kansas. Those experiences fostered a love for fashion, art…