Foster and his zany school bill crew. From rear: Sen. Mike Gierau, former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis, Sen. Eli Bebout, Stephen Friess, Foster Friess

Foster Friess’ Magic School Bill rides into the law books — 2019 Legislative recap

Gov. Mark Gordon allowed the bill to become law today without signing it. The debate over what Gordon called “flawed” legislation pitted “school choice” advocates against defenders of local control.
Foster Friess likes playing with his new toy.

Foster Friess’ proposal to remove county authority over private schools moves forward

The billionaire megadonor’s bill faces stiff opposition from the Wyoming County Commissioners Association. The commissioners argue that it would strip local control from all Wyoming counties in the process of helping Friess’ pet project.
Students and teachers will both be better off with less emphasis placed on standardized testing.

House committee votes to remove standardized test scores from Wyoming teacher evaluations

The practice of judging teachers by their students' standardized test scores has been criticized since it was adopted in Wyoming prior to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
(From left) Sens. Chris Rothfuss, Lynn Hutchings, Hank Coe, and Bill Landen voted unanimously to move Foster's bill ahead.

Foster Friess’ pet private school bill moves forward

Senators shrugged off concerns over local control and potential lawsuits to further special legislation on behalf of the billionaire's private religious academy.
Wyoming students in kindergarten through third grade may soon receive less attention as a result of shady policy decisions.

The Legislature didn’t increase class sizes. But lawmakers who want to cut Wyoming education budgets have found a back-channel way to do it.

The State School Facilities Commission has one job: to make sure Wyoming students have good schools. But the commission has inserted itself into the debate over education budget cuts—and it's hard to believe the commissioners came up with the idea on their own.
Wyoming schoolchildren head out to collect bugs as part of a Biodiversity Institute program. The institute engaged thousands of Wyoming K-12 students in hands-on science.

Abrupt closure of successful institute demonstrates another UW leadership failure

The decision to close the University of Wyoming's Biodiversity Institute will hurt the school's fundraising and community engagement efforts—not to mention scientific learning on campus and throughout the state.
When talented, young faculty members leave Wyoming, they take their talented, young families with them.

Exit Interview: Rattawut Lapcharoensap and June Glasson — The (hidden) costs of the UW budget cuts (VIDEO)

EXIT INTERVIEWS is a new series profiling talented people who are leaving Wyoming as a result of boneheaded policy decisions. This episode features a (former) UW professor and his wife, a (former) pillar of the Laramie arts community.
The UW Good Ol' Board of Trustees is taking over.

UW Board moves to grant itself unchecked power over reshaping the university during financial crisis

The board will vote next week to give itself the ability to single-handedly fire tenured faculty, cancel courses, and eliminate academic departments—big responsibilities for a group that's proven itself incompetent.
The Legislature won't be threatening these children's education ... for now.

Rumors of a budget deal suggest no deep cuts to public schools this year

This session that saw threats of public school funding cuts as large as $80 million a year. But as a final deal nears, only a small fraction of those cuts remain, which education advocates are scoring as a win.
Timmy, a public school funding advocate, thinks both options in the Senate suck.

Education advocates reluctantly root for the lesser evil in the Senate

The Senate is considering a bill that would cut roughly $15 million a year from Wyoming public schools—but it's far better than the Senate budget proposal, which would annually cut about $80 million.

While the Senate looks to slash education, a House proposal would modernize revenue streams to put less toward savings and more toward schools

The two chambers will meet next week to negotiate a solution. At stake is whether Wyoming will take a more modern approach that saves public schools, or whether it will stubbornly keep pouring money into savings and decimate education.

Senate passes oil and gas tax break while Wyoming faces a budget crisis

The Senate's cuts to education are apparently their way of paying for tax breaks for oil and gas companies.