Education in Wyoming

Freedom Caucus: Choose Between an 'F' and an 'Incomplete' For Failing Our Public School Students

Do you give the Freedom Caucus-dominated House an “F” or an “Incomplete” for its cowardly refusal to even consider public school funding?

The Wyoming State Senate has done its part to ensure Wyoming schools are adequately funded per the Laramie Boomerang. 

By voice vote at the end of Committee of the Whole debate, senators approved the Senate Education Committee’s amendment to add $127.1 million in education funding spread across two years to Senate File 81, “K-12 public school finance-2” and for the bill itself.

By the way, the Senate considered school funding in the same week that Velma Linford Elementary School was again named a national Blue Ribbon School. Can Linford continue to excel if the Freedom Caucus (looking at you. Rep. Ocean Andrew) continues to gut public school funding?

A big shout goes out to Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie). 

Rothfuss told his fellow senators the committee amendment provides additional elective teachers in areas like CTE and band to Wyoming middle schools. It also sets a minimum of 17 teachers for small school districts in Wyoming. The additional funding will also go to implement elementary level recommended nurse and counselor positions immediately.

The amendment also moves teacher salaries up from 79.1% of the comparable wage to 85%. The Average Daily Membership (ADM)is used to determine student enrollment, would change to a two-year rolling average, rather than using just prior-year enrollment numbers.

Even Senate Republicans made strong statements in support of your public schools. 

“I’m getting my money’s worth out of my district (schools) and much more.  It’s time to change this, it is time to step up and get this done. It is time to up it for our schools. We are long overdue in getting something done for our schools, ” Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, said in support of the proposed school funding levels

“The things we’ve done with the amendments … get us where we need to be. It may not be perfect, but like I’ve said, I have never met a perfect bill yet,” Rep. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, Senate Education Committee chair, said.

The funding is the end result of “recalibration,” a constitutionally-mandated process required every five years. Lawmakers review  allocate funding to the state’s 48 school districts, from school lunch dollars to staff and teacher salaries.

“The things we’ve done with the amendments … get us where we need to be," Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, said.

Schuler chairs the Senate Education Committee, where the bill began at the start of the 68th Wyoming Legislature’s budget session last week. Before that, recalibration was considered by the Select School Finance Recalibration Committee. That committee will continue to work on the model in the upcoming interim session.

“I think you are going to find that it is going to make a lot of people happier than they were. I was getting a lot of emails, texts, phone calls,” Schuler said.

“This might be the best attempt in a dozen years of education that I’ve been watching pretty closely (where) we’ve gotten where we need to be,” Sen. Taft Love, R-Cheyenne, said.

Love said he was in favor of the bill, as well as the amendment.

“We are actually funding in excess by about $15 million,” Love said. “We are providing more, for the first time in my memory, than has ever happened. ... We are going to move from, we were not funded adequately to do what we were charged to do, to now we have funded adequately. Let’s see the results.”

There were detractors. Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, said that although the state “can afford the bill” this biennium, he is concerned the increases in education spending due to the amendment will lead to future deficits.

“This will force those of you that are here in the future to vote for a big tax increase,” Scott said, adding that he doubted more funding would increase student performance.

“That increase will go on, and will grow every year … I can’t see where the proposed increases in this amendment are going to help the performance of our schools at all,” he said.

Private School Fund Grab Lawsuit Will Continue

The lawsuit against the state’s private school fund grab can continue after an Aug. 28 Laramie County District Court ruling that the plaintiffs have “standing.”

That means teachers and parents who brought the suit may continue to sue "because they will not have an equal opportunity to the private school funding" if the only private schools in their area refuse to admit their children, according to the Wyoming Public Media report. The suit argues the law violates several sections of the state's constitution.

The August ruling is the latest development in the ongoing lawsuit over the program’s future. The Wyoming Education Association (WEA) joined the suit and won an injunction in June, halting the first payments.

The state asked the court to dismiss the case for lack of standing, arguing the parents had only "general" concerns and wouldn't suffer "any unique injury" because their children attend public schools.

However, "The Act permits private schools to maintain any existing discriminatory admission policies," the court order stated, "In other words, the Act directly regulates the Plaintiffs who are also parents because they are eligible to apply to participate in the [voucher] Program. These are not speculative or remote harms and are distinguishable from those of the public in general."

The private school money comes out of Wyoming's general fund, not its public school funding, as part of a transparent Republican ploy to circumvent the state constitution. But voucher opponents, including WEA and the parent plaintiffs, allege that the vouchers could pull students out of public education, thereby reducing the "average daily membership" (ADM) of individual schools. The state's school funding model uses a district’s ADM to determine how much is allocated.

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.

Deluded Trump acolyte and Wyoming Superintendent of Education 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. 

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.

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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)