Kansas State Board of Education turns inward for new state commissioner of K-12 education
The Kansas State Board of Education selects Jake Steel, an administrator with the Kansas Department of Education, to replace retiring Commissioner Randy Watson on June 1. (Submitted)
TOPEKA — The Kansas State Board of Education voted Tuesday to appoint the state Department of Education’s director of strategy, policy and alignment to become commissioner of K-12 education in Kansas.
Jake Steel, a graduate of Garden City High School, has worked the past four years with the Kansas State Department of Education. He began his career in education as a math teacher and earned a doctorate in education from Harvard University. He will begin his duties as commissioner on June 1.
“I was raised here. I love this state. I think I have Kansas dirt under my fingernails forever,” Steel said. “This work is deeply personal to me as someone raised in Kansas public schools and now raising my family here.”
Steel said he was eager to partner with the state Board of Education to expand opportunities for students and to build relationships with educators. He vowed to help Kansas school districts use data more effectively to target support across the system. He said Kansas had excellent teachers because they weren’t “just teaching kids. They’re teaching their neighbors. They’re teaching their pastors’ grandchildren. They are teaching their community.”
He praised retiring commissioner Randy Watson, who served as education commissioner since 2014, as someone profoundly attentive to the state’s 286 school districts and the schools serving those communities.
“I’m grateful for someone who has both the humility and courage to take the baton when it is his and then to help others come up,” Steel said.
Steel was chosen over the Geary County superintendent of schools in Junction City and a former superintendent of instruction at the Virginia Department of Education.
The 10-member board voted 7-1 in favor of Steel assuming the job of commissioner. The motion to appoint Steel was backed by board members Danny Zeck of Leavenworth, Melanie Haas of Overland Park, Cathy Hopkins of Hays, Beryl New of Topeka, Dennis Hershberger of Hutchinson, Betty Arnold of Wichita and Jim Porter of Fredonia.
Board member Michelle Dombrosky of Olathe voted to reject the nominee, while board members Connie O’Brien of Tonganoxie and Debby Potter of Fredonia chose to vote “present.”
Commissioners of education in Kansas serve as CEO of the state Department of Education and work to carry out priorities of the state Board of Education.
“Dr. Steel brings a clear vision for the future of education in Kansas and a proven ability to lead complex, statewide work,” said Hopkins, the chair of the state Board of Education.
Steel earned a degree in communications from Brigham Young University in Idaho and a master’s degree in education from Johns Hopkins University, and completed a Harvard doctorate in educational leadership in 2023.
Before hired by the state Department of Education, Steel was a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Education and a White House fellow on the Domestic Policy Council. From 2005 to 2007, he was a full-time missionary with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The group of three finalists considered by the state Board of Education included Reginald Eggleston, the superintendent of Geary County Schools. He was the 2026 Kansas superintendent of the year. He serves as a colonel on the U.S. Army Reserves and previously worked with the Alabama State Department of Education.
The other finalist was Lisa Coons, who for two years was superintendent of public instruction for the Virginia Department of Education. She led a system serving 1.2 million students, but abruptly resigned in 2025. She was previously chief academic officer for the Tennessee Department of Education.