Investing in Wyoming public education pays off: We have one of the best school systems in the nation, and should feel proud of the work done in each classroom across the state every day.
Wyoming public school students top nation in ACT scores Read More »
The Wyoming Family Alliance’s campaign to elect school board members uses a candidate questionnaire that focuses far more on sex and genitals than it does on anything a school board member would actually need to know.
The sex-obsessed fundamentalists influencing Wyoming school board elections Read More »
The Wyoming Constitution is stricter than other states’ when it comes to education funding and prohibits giving public funds to private or religious schools or individuals. The Legislature ignored these provisions in creating the new program, while Gov. Gordon slightly reined it in with a line-item veto.
Public schools are overseen by boards elected by their communities. But more and more Wyoming legislators want to divert public education funding to “education savings accounts” that fund private, religious, and home school operations with no oversight or accountability—a model that has failed in other Western states.
Lawmakers are looking to reverse years of K-12 budget cuts in hopes of convincing the Wyoming Supreme Court to look kindly upon them in June, when the court will hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by the state teachers union and several school districts. A committee has proposed a $68 million funding increase aimed at providing teachers raises in hopes that the court will rule that they have met their constitutional obligation to properly fund schools.
Session preview: Facing a lawsuit, Wyo. legislators look to increase teacher pay Read More »
The benefits of preschool are clear, but middle-class and rural Wyoming families face huge hurdles enrolling their kids. Most states have public preschool, but not Wyoming—and trying to encourage lawmakers who are busy arguing over hot-button national issues to do something about it is an exercise in frustration and disappointment.
Why is getting support for public preschool in Wyoming like pulling teeth? Read More »
So-called “school vouchers” or “education savings accounts” hand over taxpayer money to parents who pull their kids out of public schools and instead enroll them in private, religious, or home schools. The Legislature’s Joint Education Committee will hear such a proposal this week, despite the fact that the Wyoming Constitution prohibits public money from being spent at religious institutions or given to schools that have zero oversight.
More than one third of Wyoming’s population lives in a “childcare desert,” and the cost for those who can find it can equal a second mortgage. While other states take steps to address this nationwide issue, Wyoming lawmakers drag their feet finding solutions.
Wyoming barriers: Young families struggle to find childcare Read More »
Early childhood education sets kids up for success. Children who go to preschool do better in K-12—requiring less help and driving down overall education costs—and they go on to earn more and require less government assistance. But two-thirds of Wyoming kids don’t attend preschool, and the state does not invest a dime in it, creating an early-life hurdle for many children that is both costly and difficult to overcome.
Wyoming barriers: The high cost of neglecting preschool Read More »
Proposals brought by the so-called “Freedom Caucus” to divert public money to private and religious schools and to criminalize librarians for “obscene” books have all failed this session.
Lawmakers defeat bills targeting Wyo. public schools and libraries Read More »
