Marcus Clem joins The Beacon as the new Wichita education reporter

The Beacon welcomed Marcus Clem as its new Wichita education reporter last week.

Clem has worked as a multimedia journalist with a concentration in education for News-Press & Gazette Company and as copy editor for The Topeka Capital-Journal and The Augusta Chronicle through Morris Communications. He’s been  a member of the Education Writers Association for two years.

At The Beacon, Clem will work closely with Maria Carter , who is the Wichita editor and senior reporter to cover the Wichita Unified School District 259 and other local schools.

“Marcus brings a lot of enthusiasm and a strong background reporting about education issues to The Beacon Wichita,” Carter said.

Clem hopes to highlight intricacies of the school system to make information more accessible to parents, students and taxpayers.

“I’ll be helping folks understand what kids are learning and why they’re arranged to learn certain things,” Clem said. “There’s always a drive for parents to control what access and material (kids are) receiving in schools. So I’ll be covering all of that and how it affects different people.”

Clem is making the move from St. Joseph, Missouri to Wichita to grow our reporting team and to start building relationships with the community. He said fact-based reporting and analysis championed by The Beacon makes Wichitans better informed about key issues.

“Wichita has a bright future and it has the potential for a lot of growth,” Clem said. “To me, this is a center of culture and a center of diversity. These are ideas people usually don’t associate with Kansas with, but they’re very present here.”

He sees reporting as a valuable way to make a community stronger.

“The most gratifying part of being a journalist is when somebody comes up to you and says ‘I didn’t know that before reading your story and that helps me in some way,’” Clem said.

Clem’s colleagues are excited to have him on board.

“We’re glad to have somebody tracking schools in Wichita who has so much experience and enthusiasm for understanding education,” said Scott Canon, The Beacon’s editor-in-chief.

Clem is almost 90% fluent in Spanish and his wife currently lives in Paraguay.

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