The recent death of George Floyd has left us stunned, sad, angry and bewildered.

The pain our black communities continue to endure has to end. And it starts with each one of us.

The Kansas State Board of Education established the vision, Kansas leads the world in the success of each student, and we mean that. Each student.

Racism has no place in our education system. Our black students and teachers, and all people of color, deserve the same basic rights as anyone else. To be safe. To be valued. And to receive equal opportunities to succeed.

We know that we don’t have all of the answers. We know that we have made and will continue to make mistakes. But we are committed to doing better and being better.

We are committed to listening to and learning from those who continue to experience racial inequality.

We are committed to continuing our focus on social-emotional development in the classroom to teach personal responsibility, acceptance, tolerance, respect and community.

And we are committed to the education of each of Kansas’ nearly 500,000 students, just as we are committed to our own education.

We are proud of the hard work Kansas schools are doing to change the way we educate students. We have more students graduating high school, more students prepared, not just academically, but socially and emotionally, and more students leaving high school with a plan for their futures.

There are so many good things happening in Kansas schools today, but it isn’t enough, and we won’t achieve our vision of leading the world in the success of each student until racial inequality is addressed and eliminated.