Education in Wyoming

The  enemies of public education A/K/A the Legislature in this state lost BIG  TIME on Feb. 25 on all six issues brought in court. This is at least  the FIFTH time in the last 25 years the state legislature has lost these court cases.

The  Laramie County District Court (the county to our east and home to  Cheyenne, the capital) "declares State has failed to maintain a  constitutionally compliant:

• School finance system by not properly funding the actual costs of school districts to provide the basket of quality educational goods and services;
• School finance system by not properly adjusting for the effects of inflation;
• School finance system by not providing for salaries adequate for the school districts to recruit and retain personnel to deliver the basket of quality educational goods and services;
• School finance system by not including funding for elementary level mental health counselors, SROs, nutritional programs, and computers for every student;
• School facilities finance system by not  adequately and evenly assessing school facilities for educational  suitability; and
• A constitutionally compliant school facilities finance system by allowing unequal and inadequate school facilities to exist for too long of a period. 

ORDER
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the State shall  modify the Funding Model and the school facilities financing system in  manners consistent with this Order to assure the school financing system  for operations and for school facilities are constitutional.

The Court notes, because 2025 is a recalibration year, there is an excellent window of opportunity to address these issues.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this Court shall maintain jurisdiction over this case until such time as the constitutional violations have been fully remedied.

What this order means is that the judge will keep an eye on the legislature and apply pressure that it fulfills the order.

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Want to know more? Check out these resources:

     Wyoming Education Association - general site

     ACLU of Wyoming - general site

     Wyoming Association of School Boards - general site

     Wyoming Education Association - join here

     Ignite Wyoming - general site (Program of the Wyoming School Boards.                     Association)