The Business Record hosted its first Power Breakfast panel discussion of 2016 this morning at the Hilton Garden Inn Des Moines/Urbandale.

Our panel of education and business leaders identified challenges and current efforts to improve Iowa’s education system, and helped answer how the business community could align itself and lend its support to restoring the state to its position as a leader in education.

The event featured the following panelists:
– Dave Wilkerson – superintendent, Waukee Community School District.
– Mary Bontrager – executive vice president, Greater Des Moines Partnership.
– Mark Jacobs – founder, Reaching Higher Iowa.
– Ryan Wise – director, Iowa Department of Education.

To kick off the event, we asked each of the panelists to identify a key challenge facing Iowa’s education system.