What a week it’s been.
The 2025 Legislative general session began on Tuesday Jan. 14, and education bills were at the forefront of many bills. The Freedom Caucus has a much stronger presence in this year’s legislature (including a majority in the House), and this should concern public education advocates. Prior to session, that caucus released its “Five & Dime” plan, laying out their five big policy priorities – including education – with the intention to accomplish this work within the first 10 days. They have not wasted any time in their efforts.
House Bill 100* allows districts to craft policies that permit an 18-year-old – with a high school diploma and who could pass a background check – to be a classroom teacher or administrator. Not only is this a slap in the face to the professionalism of educators, it will have significant and long-lasting negative impacts on public education. Significantly, it will reduce student performance (despite years of the legislature talking about “bang for our buck”), K3 reading and intervention, and overall student performance.
One of the questions that needs to be raised is: who is expected to train these new teachers? The assumption is that it would fall to classroom teachers: meaning additional work without any discussion of additional pay, not to mention the assumption that a licensed educator’s degree means so little that what they do can be easily learned on-the-job. This will inevitably lead to high turnover among those new 18-year-old “teachers,” but also career educators who are likely to consider leaving education and/or leaving Wyoming, given these new obligations and the attacks on the profession, which ultimately worsens the attraction and retention issue that the bill weakly attempts to address.
House Bill 199, the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act, is a pig with lipstick…but a pig by any other name. This is the updated voucher bill we long expected, but the depth and breadth of this bill’s negative impacts cannot be understated. First, families already have school choice in Wyoming, and public dollars should be reserved for public education where greater than 90% of our students receive their high-quality education. The current law is already unconstitutional, even with the 150% federal poverty limit eligibility requirements. HB199 removes all eligibility requirements and creates a universal voucher program, drawing more than $40 million away from the School Foundation Program in Federal Mineral Royalty tips. These royalties are payments made to the federal government for the extraction of minerals on state land, and a portion of those dollars are sent back to Wyoming. Revenue attached to those minerals belongs to Wyoming’s citizens. These are taxpayer dollars.
Even more:
- While the legislature underfunds K12 public schools, violates its constitutional mandate, and makes public education fight for what little external cost adjustments (ECA) it receives, an automatic ECA is built into the new voucher bill.
- The bill removes all accountabilities: while using taxpayer dollars, there is no assessment to ensure that the programs provide an education that prepares Wyoming’s students for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
- It allows for arbitrary and capricious approval of education service providers. Language states that determination will be made “on his (superintendent’s) own initiative,” or “at the request of a parent.”
- No effective mechanisms are in place to prevent or reduce waste, fraud and abuse, which are rampant in these types of programs. For example, Arizona had documented numerous cases where these dollars were used to purchase family trips, jet skis and in one case where two individuals attempted to receive voucher dollars for 43 children.
This bill harms students, hurts our local and state economies, and outright attacks public education in Wyoming.
As if those weren’t bad enough, HB200** (the Parental Rights Amendments) takes the cake. This bill expands the previous parental rights bill by inserting the former Transparency in Education Act, where educators are required to provide all materials that they will use in classroom instruction and lessons. This was expanded to mandate that all teachers comply, regardless of subject area.
These are only a few of the pieces of legislation that directly target educators and our public education system. For a full list, please review our WEA Bill Tracker. The only way these and many other bills will be defeated is through collective action. Please consider writing, calling, texting or emailing your senator and representative to tell them to VOTE NO on these and other anti-public education bills. Also, there are numerous opportunities to lobby your specific legislators at the Capitol. If this is something you, your students, parents, friends or family are interested in doing, please reach out to WEA Government Relations Director Tate Mullen.
The power to save public education is in your hands, and in solidarity we can all advocate for ourselves, our fellow educators and the students of Wyoming!
* HB100 is sponsored by Representatives Andrew, Bratten, Guggenmos, Haroldson, Heiner, Kelly, Neiman, Singh, Strock, and Senators Biteman, Brennan, Kolb and Scott
** HB 200 is sponsored by Representatives Webb, Brady, Guggenmos, Haroldson, Heiner, Johnson, Lucas, Schmid, Strock and Senators Boner and Pearson
