Education in Wyoming

Judge Temporarily Halts Private, Religious School Vouchers

Private and religious schools won’t be reaching into your public school funds! Yet.

A Laramie County district court judge has halted payouts from Wyoming’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program, scheduled to go out July 1, while he considers an ongoing lawsuit.

Several Wyoming parents and the Wyoming Education Association (WEA) filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming the so-called “Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act” violated the state Constitution.

The voucher program would take up to $7,000 per child annually from YOUR public schools. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle calculated this will cost YOUR public schools $26.6 million in ESA funds.

Regardless of parents’ income. With little or no accountability.

The plaintiffs say violates the state Constitution by using taxpayer dollars to fund private education. Plaintiffs also argue the voucher program does not guarantee a uniform and quality education for students.

Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, and other lawmakers argued the bill lacked critical requirements to oversee how the funds are being used.

“It’s going to be the wild, wild west of waste, fraud and abuse,” Harshman said. “The experiment we’re going to pull on our kids — it isn’t going to work. You have to have guardrails.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, State Treasurer Curt Meier and the state of Wyoming are specifically named as defendants in the case. Two Wyoming families from Cody have filed a motion to intervene as defendants in the lawsuit.

Attorney Gregory Hacker, representing the plaintiffs, pointed out that Wyoming’s Constitution establishes the right to education and how the state should approach ensuring that right for the public.

This includes not allowing state funds to go to private or religious educational institutions and ensuring state-funded education is uniform, complete, equitable, adequate and open to all. 

Hacker argued that since private schools are inherently selective about membership, the state cannot contribute to their funding and still meet educational equity standards.

Plaintiffs are also concerned about the lack of academic accountability and potential inequities that could be created through the program.

Public schools have to meet certain curriculum and testing standards to receive state funds. This program would indirectly give state funds to private schools without a requirement to meet the same standards as public schools.

The law does not require a standard for instruction in these areas or a standard method of testing students, Hacker said.

It also includes the provision that “no parent shall be required to include any instruction that conflicts with the parent’s or the ESA student’s religious doctrines.”

In order for the court to grant the preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs have to prove a irreparable harm.

Hacker argued that should the voucher program proceed and later be found unconstitutional, the state may be in a position to try and recoup already spent funds from families.

He asked the court to grant the injunction to ensure that no state funds are misspent while the case is litigated, assuming it would protect families from the fallout of the court’s impending decision.

The state’s attorney, Mackenzie Williams of the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, argued that the voucher program does not pose imminent or irreparable harm to the plaintiffs’ right to education. He added that there is no precedent for the state seeking to recoup spent funds.

Williams added that the case should not be subject to strict scrutiny because this isn’t an issue of equal protection.

Froelicher pointed out that all aspects of the school finance system are subject to strict scrutiny. Williams argued that this program is distinguishable because it is not financed the way public and charter schools are.

“This is distinguishable; it comes from the general fund,” Williams said. “... No school funds are used to fund this program, and so I would say that it is not part of the school finance system.”

Williams added that thousands of families have applied for this program, working the funding into their education plans for their children for the upcoming year.

As of July 1, families are expecting to receive up to $7,000 per child, Williams said. That is the status quo that the plaintiffs seek to upend, and they must show unconstitutionality and irreparable harm to do so, he said.

“We’re at a stage where the families are expecting the money,” Williams said. “They’re mak(ing) plans for how to educate their children based on what they think is the most appropriate education, and it’s the plaintiffs that are seeking to disrupt those plans.”

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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)