David Awbrey, former editorial page editor at The Wichita Eagle, has been named communications director for the State Department of Education.

“A lot of the issues that have people upset, I think, can be resolved with better communication as to what’s going on in education, what the problems are and what can be done to solve them,” Awbrey said Thursday.

Currently, Awbrey is earning a teaching certificate at Drury University in Springfield, Mo. He said he expects to join the department’s staff in late December or early January. His salary: $76,000.

In his editorials at The Eagle, Awbrey often criticized the state’s public schools for their resistance to change.

Awbrey was student body president at Kansas University in 1969-70. He and his wife, Diane, lived in Lawrence before moving to Burlington, Vt., in 2001.

Until 2004, Awbrey was editorial page editor at The Burlington Free Press.