This week, we’re taking a different approach with the update. Because education funding will be a significant discussion during the remainder of the session, we want to help give some clarity to the topic.
One of the most significant components of education funding is the external cost adjustment, or ECA.
The ECA is an inflationary adjustment for education funding that is mandated by a prior legal case (generally referred to as “Campbell”) and is one of the fundamental components of the Wyoming Education Association’s lawsuit against the state for underfunding education.
The Basis for an ECA
Every five years, the state of Wyoming is required to go through a recalibration of the education funding model. This recalibration looks to accomplish three things:
- Using best practices and evidence-based data, determine what is the necessary “basket of goods” – what we are teaching – and if that provides a modern education as required by the Wyoming Constitution;
- Determine how to best implement that basket of goods in Wyoming; and
- Determine the cost associated with that cost-based model.
During the years in between recalibrations, the legislature is required to adjust for inflation across four categories:
- Professional staff
- Non-professional staff
- Education materials
- Utilities/Energy
Some Important Information
- Remember that inflation is cumulative and needs to be adjusted annually on top of the previous year’s adjustment. We don’t “reset the clock” at the beginning of each year. This is one of the reasons why education costs will and should increase year after year.
- Salaries make up more than 85% of our education funding model.
- These cost adjustments are provided through a block grant, which would allow districts flexibility in where dollars are spent.
- The legislature has failed to adopt a recalibration since 2010, and the model starting salary for teachers is only $39k a year. Districts need that flexibility to provide the salaries needed to attract and retain employees.
Which brings us to where we are today.
Every year during the interim (where legislative committees work on bills that will be heard in the next session), reports are provided to the Joint Education Committee (JEC) and the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC), where professional consultant recommendations are made for these inflation adjustments. During the most recent interim, the consultant recommended a total ECA of $37.2 million.
The discussion noted that that amount would still be roughly $30 million short of meeting the constitutional obligation to fully fund education. The JEC and the JAC, as well as the Governor, recommended that the state work to make up this difference. In fact, a recommendation of $66.3 million was provided during the interim.
As we have moved through the session, the Senate and the House cut this recommendation by roughly $17.5 million. Keep in mind that the recommendation from the consultant during the interim was $37.2 million. The JEC, the JAC, and the Governor all went well above the consultant’s recommendation in an attempt to right-size the funding, yielding a proposed ECA of $66.3 million. While the Senate and the House both reduced the ECA to $48.8 million (still more than the consultant’s recommendation), it fails to fully fund public education. The WEA has and always will advocate for a fully funded cost-based model of education.
During the next couple of weeks, the Senate and the House will negotiate their different positions on the supplemental budget. It goes without saying that the WEA believes it is the requirement and responsibility of our Legislature to fully fund our education system.
If the state were to adopt the full recommendation of $66.3 million, it would bring us closer to fully funding public education. However, it would require consistent fully funded inflation adjustments in the future to comply. For reference, since 2005, the Wyoming Legislature has only provided an ongoing and sustained (not resetting the clock) ECA in 2023-2024.
Please ask your legislator to adopt the recommendation of the JEC, the JAC and the Governor to fund our external cost adjustment at $66.3 million.
In solidarity!
