Winston Churchill defined success as “moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” When I read this, I had to chuckle as I believe it is a perfect description of the economic development process in rural Kansas but also describes the life of an entrepreneur.

At Grow Hays, our mission is business creation, business retention, and expansion and business recruitment. Pretty simple, pretty straight-forward — but far from easy. Each portion of our mission requires a strategy and planning to determine how to achieve our mission. Today, I would like to focus on the first part of our mission — business creation.

To me, business creation is synonymous with entrepreneurship. Fostering an environment that is conducive to entrepreneurship is essential if we are to grow and sustain our economy in Ellis County. We are very fortunate that Fort Hays State University is actively engaged in entrepreneurship.

The university has invested heavily in entrepreneurship and conducts events like the Faulkner Challenge and Start Up Weekend. These are excellent events that sow the seeds of entrepreneurship in the community.

At Grow Hays, we are attempting to expand those efforts through our Robert E. Schmidt Entrepreneurial Series. This series consists of several events that further foster a community environment of entrepreneurship and business creation. These events include:

Pitch It

Pitch It is our Shark Tank-type event where aspiring and existing entrepreneurs “pitch” their ideas. Each participant gives a five-minute presentation followed by questions from three judges. Each event features five presenters with the winners being awarded a $500 cash prize. The objective of the event is to not only bring new ideas to the community but to also expose these ideas and concepts to an audience of potential investors, mentors and other resources that can help turn these ideas into reality.

Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge

The YEC is a Network Kansas sponsored event consisting of high school students in Ellis County doing a trade show booth as well as presenting a business idea. Last spring, we held the first YEC in Ellis County and had over 23 participants from local high schools.

Ethan Lang from Thomas More Prep-Marian was the winner of our local YEC and then went on to win the state YEC event held in Manhattan. What a terrific first year to produce a state champion!

TriSpective Speaker Series

We have amazing talent in our community, and the TriSpective Speaker Series puts those talents on display. Each event consists of three local speakers that give 15- to 20-minute presentations on a variety of topics. These individuals tell their stories, talk about their successes and failures, and answer questions from the audience. We have had a wide range of topics ranging from marketing and branding, market segmentation, overcoming obstacles and fears, data security, and entrepreneurship. It is a terrific opportunity to hear from people who have unique skills, have overcome obstacles and have actually “done it”!

Grow Hays quarterly luncheons

Communication and education are critical to our communities success and our quarterly luncheons achieve both. At these luncheons, we bring together community leaders, provide updates regarding Grow Hays activities as well as have speakers who provide educational information on things that impact our community. We have had speakers discussing the development process, development opportunities, the property taxation process, and the oil industry and its economic impact on Ellis County.

• • •

Entrepreneurship is absolutely a key component of our economic future in Ellis County and, at Grow Hays, we are working every day to help build an environment where entrepreneurship can flourish. We are very fortunate to have The Robert E and Patricia A. Schmidt Foundation as the sponsors of our Entrepreneurial Series.

I believe it is something Bob would have been proud to have his name on.

Doug Williams is executive director of Grow Hays.

By GLENN BRUNKOW
Pottawatomie County farmer and rancher

One of my favorite cartoons is a “Hagar the Horrible” panel. The picture shows Hagar with arrows stuck in his shield, his boat sinking, obviously having a bad day. He has his hands thrown back and is looking at the heavens and proclaims, “Why me?”

The next panel shows the skies above him open up and a voice say, “Why not!” I think back on that cartoon sometimes when it comes time to advocate for agriculture. Whether it is in D.C., Topeka or a fourth-grade classroom, many times I wonder, why me? Why can’t I just stay home and work on my farm and forget the rest of the world exists?

Truth be told, I suppose I could, but the reality is the days of keeping our noses to the grindstone, minding our own business and not worrying about what anyone else thinks are long gone. I don’t know if you have noticed, but things like social media allow everyone with an opinion and a keyboard to be an expert about agriculture.

That is why it is so important for us to be involved and to advocate for agriculture. We are the true experts, and every one of us pour our blood, sweat and tears into what we do. So, I will ask you this question. If not you, then who will tell our story? We all know that answer, and the alternative is one that should scare us to death.

That is also why it is so important to be active in Kansas Farm Bureau. Alone our voices can be heard, but it is a much greater challenge. Kansas Farm Bureau and, ultimately, American Farm Bureau allow for us to come together as farmers and ranchers to achieve a common goal. It is the power of the individual member to have influence that gives us our grassroots strength.

I know each of us are incredibly busy, and it is so hard to make that sacrifice to be gone from our farms and ranches. Let me assure you the sacrifice is well worth the pain. I truly believe the time I spend advocating for agriculture, whether it is telling our story to school kids or elected officials, is just as important as the time I spend in my tractor seat.

We must all take the time to tell our story. Each of us has one to tell and the public needs to hear it. The days of assuming everyone has ties to agriculture and understands what we do are gone. The public wants to like and trust us, but they need to hear our story from us directly.

The next time your phone rings or that email pops up with an opportunity to advocate for agriculture, I want you to answer the call and tell everyone about the great work we all do every day. We feed a hungry world while protecting the soil, air and water. Why you? Why not.

“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.

More Kansas students will now qualify for admission at Emporia, Fort Hays, Pittsburg and Wichita State Universities. The more rigorous high school academic curriculum was jettisoned for an average high school grade point average (GPA) and a minimal score on the ACT. The rationale for lowering standards focuses on making the process simpler and increasing the number of students who go to college.

The ACT score remains the same as in prior standards. Required high school GPA is now 2.25, except for K-State (3.25) while the University of Kansas will require either an ACT score of 21 and a GPA of 3.25, or an ACT score of 24 and a GPA of 3.0.

The more rigorous Qualified Admissions (QA) high school curriculum, as well as being in the top third of your graduating class, was eliminated across all universities.

While nearly all KBOR discussion was focused on admissions to regents universities and comparisons with a few other state’s requirements, the major impact will be a drop in rigor of high school math and science curricula taught in Kansas high schools.

While I have been a severe critic of better-education-through-paperwork because qualified teachers and not written plans are the answer, Qualified Admissions (QA) standards that went into effect in 2001 were effective. QA caused an immediate shortage of science teachers. Any biology teacher who could add a chemistry or physics endorsement moved to teaching those courses that were mandated by QA. Those shortages continue today. QA also contributed to re-defining teacher licensure, elimination of home economics and shop classes as a “science,” and eliminated a watered down high school “general science” class.

QA also required four high school math courses (or ACT score) rather than three under KSDE requirements for a high school diploma. That fourth math requirement was not widely met. So the Kansas chief academic officers got an end run approved so students could take the fourth math at college. This was but one of many actions that diluted academic rigor in Kansas.

The regents recently forced higher education bachelors programs to reduce down to 120 credit hours. Civilization moves ahead in education requirements over the years (a medical doctor in the 1850s only required two years of college). So academic faculty had good reason to require more education. But the regents first requested and then demanded a reduction of bachelors degrees to 120 credit hours. If any other similar program in Kansas was just 120 hours, all must drop to that level.

This race to the bottom continued over many years as the regent’s committee on transfer and articulation pressured universities to accept transfer courses that had the same name but varied greatly in prerequisites and mode of delivery.
Now high school GPA will be critical. But there has no mention made about how high school GPA, while previously the best predictor of college success, has been rapidly and miraculously increasing, raising high school graduation rates from under 70 percent to over 85 percent, while scores on NAEP, SAT and ACT remain flat or fall. This “Lake Wobegone Effect” (where all children are above average) is making high school GPA less predictive.

The Board of Regents functions much like a corporate board. Unlike the Kansas State Board of Education, KBOR has not held open public forums for over a decade, an avenue where the impacts of QA on K–12 coursework and teacher training could have been discussed. And Kansas presidents and provosts appear more focused on sustaining tuition than defending academic rigor.

These Kansas actions mirror similar actions across other states where higher education bodies or legislatures are likewise lowering requirements to attend state colleges and reducing academic rigor. Many states have followed California in removing the college requirement for college algebra (except for math and science majors) because that course is a factor in many students not completing college. Some states are removing algebra from high school requirements for the same reason.

For decades, American families who host overseas K–12 students from Europe and Asia have noted how those visiting students are several grades ahead of U.S. students in math and science, and likewise how difficult it is for American students to survive at the same grade level in foreign schools. However, there has historically been more equivalency between American and foreign students at the university level, particularly when American creativity is pitted against rote memorization. However, No Child Left Behind teaching-to-the-test has reduced that American advantage at the university level.

Actions being taken by higher education governing bodies across the United States, primarily to feed more students into a university system now more reliant on tuition dollars, ensure that many future American students will lag behind foreign students at the collegiate level. International education conferences already see hallway discussions of concern about the value of the American undergraduate college degree from our non-selective public universities and online diploma mills.

Hopefully, with the Qualified Admissions curriculum gone, Kansas will not return to offering science credit for home economics. But this action does dismiss any need for chemistry and physics in the many small Kansas schools that barely offer a 1930s curriculum and should be consolidated. This regents’ action in Kansas is a symptom of America’s widespread educational race to the bottom.

John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.