These past two days have been rather interesting…
The Select Committee on School Finance and Recalibration met Jan. 22-23 in Cheyenne for their final interim committee meeting, where they finalized a bill for the 2026 Legislative session, which begins Feb. 9.
In October, the committee drafted a bill that would have significant and long-lasting negative consequences for Wyoming. That proposal was an attempt to “buy” teachers’ approval at pennies on the dollar for a bill that would culminate in increased workload, less classroom management, less support, and less staff … all for a “raise” that will be wiped out by increases in insurance premiums and continued failures to provide external cost adjustments (ECA).
The bill and amendments that passed out of committee today were no better and have done little to address these problems and an unconstitutional recalibration that is not cost-based. Some highlights:
- To begin, the ECA would take place every two years instead of every year. This – coupled with pulling teacher salaries out of the model – would be a two-year salary freeze. If the legislature failed to provide a full and ongoing ECA at that time, it would mean a four-year salary freeze, significant loss of purchasing power for education staff, and further harm to those alleged raises.
- Rep. John Bear, in one of his motions, tried to take credit for “new leadership” as the reason that the legislature passed ECAs in recent years. This is disingenuous at best, and an outright lie at worst. It was only after WEA filed their school finance litigation did the body even consider any ECA. In fact, the day after District Court Judge Froelicher released his order against the state was when the ECA was provided. This is a product of WEA holding a legislature — that has continuously violated the constitution — accountable, and we will continue to do so. The only ‘no’ votes for that proposal were Sen. Rothfuss, Rep. Yin, and Rep. Kelly.
- Sen. Schuler provided an amendment to decrease the proposed 4-8th grade class sizes to 22:1, instead of 25:1. This and all other classroom sizes would still be an increase in classroom size compared to what is currently in the statute, which will create more work with less resources and support.
- Rep. Neiman provided a fix to the small school calculation and Rep. Yin offered a proposal that may fix an unconstitutional Regional Cost Adjustment (RCA) recommendation provided by the recalibration consultants.
- Rep. Kelly brought forth a proposal that would reflect the testimony heard from across the state that stakeholders were vehemently opposed to mandating that districts use the state insurance plan. In fact, there was not any testimony supporting the state’s plan. Kelly’s proposal to strike that mandate from the recalibration unfortunately did not garner a “second” from any committee member, killing the discussion. As of now, the bill continues the mandate.
Other provisions were amended as well, but the big takeaway is that after days of testimony, with educators and advocates lined out the door to provide testimony, the committee offered no real fixes and instead dangled scraps from the table in an attempt to dissuade education professionals from standing up for themselves and their students.
Once the Legislative Service Office researches the impact of this bill in terms of FTEs and dollars, we will provide those to you. Your continued efforts are vital to standing up for students, for education professionals, and for public education in Wyoming.
Thank you from the bottom of our union hearts to everyone that showed up and to those that raised their voices, letting the committee know that this is not going unwatched. We are so proud of you (and happy to see many new faces!). We are stronger together, and we will continue to fight for public education across Wyoming.
In solidarity!