Nevada's Superintendent of Public Instruction Victor Wakefield sits down with Kristopher Sanchez to address a question that haunts every parent and employer in the state: why does Nevada rank near the bottom in education, and what is the Department of Education actually doing about it? The conversation covers everything from a 99% graduation rate among CTE completers to a sobering reality where only one-third of students reach math proficiency by eighth grade.

Wakefield breaks down the five strategic priorities now guiding the Nevada Department of Education — strong academic foundations, empowering pathways, equipped educators, informed families, and aligned systems. Half of Nevada's high school students now participate in career technical education, and the state recently shifted from a three-year to a two-year CTE sequence so students have room for internships and advanced coursework. Meanwhile, 15% to 16% of Nevada's 16-to-24-year-olds remain neither in school nor employed, a rate that outpaces the national average by nearly five percentage points.

The discussion turns pointed on AI in schools and educational technology. Wakefield describes visiting a second-grade classroom where a student on a literacy program was learning to beat the game rather than learning to read — a moment he calls emblematic of a 15-year failed experiment with screens in classrooms. Carson City's teacher-led stoplight model for AI use in assignments offers a counterpoint, grounding technology decisions in learning objectives rather than novelty.

Wakefield arrived in Nevada 15 years ago to lead Teach for America's Clark County program across 50 Title I schools, later served on the State Board of Education, and completed doctoral research on Nevada education reform. Governor Lombardo appointed him as the state's superintendent, and he spent his first six months touring 13 of 17 school districts. The statewide strategic improvement plan, known as the STIP, is set for a six-week public comment period before formal adoption.

Nevada's education system serves more than 450,000 public school students across 17 county districts and one charter school authority, and the conversation makes clear that the gap between pockets of excellence and statewide scale remains the central challenge of Wakefield's tenure.

Nevada's Transportation Authority and Taxicab Authority are closer to merging than at any point in their combined history, and administrator Todd Park — the first person to run both agencies simultaneously — explains exactly what that merger would change for Las Vegas transportation regulation, enforcement against illegal operators, and autonomous vehicle oversight. This episode of the Nevada Means Business podcast, hosted by Department of Business and Industry Director Kristopher Sanchez, breaks down why two separate state agencies with overlapping mandates no longer make sense in an era of rideshare companies, self-driving taxis, and a growing illegal transportation problem along the Resort Corridor.

Todd Park traces his path from 19 years in a Salt Lake City homicide unit to a cubicle job at the NTA, then to enforcement chief, and finally to dual administrator of both agencies. That career arc — from undercover policing to regulatory leadership — gives him a rare vantage point on the enforcement challenges facing Las Vegas, where illegal operators use real-time communications to evade NTA and TA officers in a nightly cat-and-mouse game along the Strip. Park describes how statute misalignment between NRS Chapter 706 and the 1969 Taxicab Authority charter creates enforcement gaps that a single merged agency could close.

The conversation covers the legislative path forward, including aligning statutes written decades apart, consolidating two separate budgets funded by different mechanisms, and creating parity across industry stakeholders from traditional taxi companies to TNCs like Uber and Lyft to autonomous vehicle network companies. Park and Sanchez also address the labor displacement concerns raised at the recent IATR international conference, the safety advantages of removing distracted human drivers, and why Nevada — the first state to license autonomous vehicle testing — now faces pressure to modernize its regulatory framework before the next legislative session.

Nevada Department of Transportation Director Tracy Larkin-Thomason explains why the state's 5,400 miles of highway face a growing maintenance challenge — and what it will take to keep pace with explosive population growth, a surging mining industry, and stalled infrastructure funding. With a fuel tax unchanged since 1993 and construction inflation exceeding 60%, the gap between what Nevada roads need and what the highway fund can deliver is widening every year.

The conversation covers NDOT's full scope of operations, from managing 1,200 bridges and 50 fueling stations to coordinating emergency response across four states after the 2024 I-15 closure that shut down northbound traffic into Las Vegas for 48 hours. Larkin-Thomason details six new interchanges planned along I-15 from the California state line to Sloan, ten more between Kyle Canyon and Mercury, and the challenges of building new capacity while the existing system erodes.

Brightline West, the $3 billion high-speed rail project connecting Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas, has finalized all contracts and encroachment permits with NDOT. Larkin-Thomason calls it one of the first passenger rail expansions into the interior West and a nationally significant infrastructure milestone. The episode also addresses Nevada's critical mineral boom — with 13 essential minerals, lithium extraction at Thacker Pass, and new operations near Tonopah and Beatty — and the strain that mining super loads, workforce housing shortages, and heavy truck traffic place on two-lane rural highways.

Larkin-Thomason, a 30-year NDOT veteran who rose from tech trainee to director, outlines the agency's legislative priorities heading into the 2027 session. The highway fund currently splits revenue among NDOT, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Department of Public Safety, with 67% of the transportation program funded by federal dollars. Deferred projects now stretch past 2035, and the director frames the state's central question plainly: decide what Nevada should look like in 20 years, then fund the infrastructure to match.