Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson visited Parsons USD 503 teachers on Monday at the Parsons High School auditorium.
Watson spoke about the effort involved to move students through the education system and guide them toward the future. He also spoke of the impact of education on income potential and how post-secondary education helps reduce poverty in the populations of those getting the additional education or certification.
Watson is a 1977 graduate of Field Kindley High School in Coffeyville. He was in the top 20% of the graduating class of 265 when Coffeyville’s population was about 19,000. The population now is around 9,000 and the rate of poverty has increased.
Of the three valedictorians in his class, one is a top liver transplant surgeon at the Mayo Clinic and another is lead attorney for a large Kansas City law firm. He said of the top 20% of his class, only two live in Coffeyville and only 10 still live in Kansas.
He said some wonderful people have come back to Kansas after graduating and others stayed in the state. Still others have landed in other states or places.
Watson made a point about the effort required to help a student navigate school in Kansas and guide them on to post-secondary success. He told the teachers and aides and others in attendance that each of them plays a role, no matter if a teacher, principal, superintendent or commissioner of education.
“They’re still our kids,” Watson said. KSDE in a video interviewed a Topeka USD 501 student in grade school and again in high school. In grade school, the student wanted to become an actress or a singer. In high school, after some personal tragedy, she was trying to find her feet again in her junior year. She wanted to go into nursing but lacked the required courses to explore that option fully in high school.
Watson and others counseled the student, took her on campus visits so she could explore a career in nursing. She decided to attend the University of Kansas. In her sophomore year, Watson said she told him that she changed her major to sociology and wanted to major in global international affairs and work in the Peace Corps. Her goal has been to help other people. Watson said the student earned a Pell grant and received scholarships. She will be able to graduate without debt from her schooling.
See WATSON, Page 6.
He said the effort that her teachers and counselors took with her over the years of her education is testament to the work being done across the state by teachers and counselors.
“It takes all of us to help young people get to where they want to go,” he said.
Those relationships with students matter, he said. He also talked about the importance of post-secondary education.
Kansas needs 73% of its workforce to have a post-secondary certificate or degree. About 37% of the 73% need to have bachelor’s degrees or higher. About 36% need to have a certificate or associate’s degree, he said.
The additional schooling helps create income potential for the students and reduce the instances of poverty.
Education impacts earning. He shared these stats for Kansas: — A student who does not graduate from high school makes on average $30,885 a year, with a poverty rate of 21.9%.
— A student who graduates from high school earns on average $34,137 a year, with a poverty rate of 14.7%.
— A high school graduate with some college or an associate’s degree earns on average $40.240 a year, with a poverty rate of 8.5%.
— A high school graduate with a bachelor’s degree or higher earns on average $60,144 a year, with a poverty rate of 4%.
“The more education you get, the poverty rate comes down tremendously,” Watson said.
Higher education is a two-fold sum game. The education or certification helps the individual advance and the individual then helps the state’s economy.
Watson also shared statistics on the state’s absenteeism rate. He said in 2018 the state had an absentee rate of 13.2%. That increased to 25.7% in 2022 during the pandemic. It dropped to 19.8% in 2024.
Watson also discussed briefly activities of the Kansas Legislature and the Trump administration with the Sun.
He said he was pleased that the Legislature is discussing issues facing education today. That’s not always the case.
He said one of the biggest challenges is creating an understanding that a law won’t fix everything. You have to change behavior. A law can change some behavior.
The Legislature is discussing ways to cut property taxes and has advanced measures to reduce or eliminate the statewide tax that generates income for public schools.
Watson said the Legislature has passed $2 billion in tax cuts in the last two sessions. The one problem is that Kansas is not a big state and its population isn’t growing, and neither Democrats nor Republicans have figured out a way to remedy that.
Watson said in his opinion, “If you start tinkering with the tax code, you’re in real trouble.” Property taxes, sales taxes and income taxes work together and need to be in balance. The cuts made sound big, but they have a minimal impact on property owners, who may save $40 on their property tax bill while the state loses millions to support education. The amount an individual saves in personal income taxes is small, too, compared to the lost the cut creates across the state.
“So, it’s a huge amount of money. It just doesn’t look like a huge amount of money when you go to pay it,” he said.
President Trump has announced plans to eliminate the federal Department of Education. He may issue an executive order, as he has for other cuts and actions, on this matter. Watson doesn’t think the Education Department could be eliminated by executive order. A lot of its power could be stripped that way.
“I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday, according to Reuters. “The Department of Education’s a big con job.”
Public schools get food service money from the federal Department of Agriculture and other initiatives can be moved to other federal departments. He said title and special education programs still need a place to live.
“My guess is those programs are still going to be there. It’s just a matter of where,” Watson said.
He said he’s waiting to see how things shake out because some executive orders have been blocked or slowed by lawsuits and court actions. Others have been rescinded.
