The Wyoming Board of Education supports making the state’s schools chief an appointed position instead of an elected one, as the Wyoming Constitution currently requires.
After hours of deliberation Thursday, all but one Board member voiced support for making such changes to the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Board was split on whether the Governor or the Board itself should be responsible for appointing a state Superintendent.
Lawmakers commissioned a statewide survey a few months back on a possible restructuring of public education governance in Wyoming. Board of Education Vice Chair Scotty Ratliff says respondents feel one of two ways.
“You either think the system is the way it should be or you think the system needs to be changed," says Ratliff. "I think that the Board majority certainly supports a change—that even being a constitutional change.”
For that change to happen, lawmakers would need to propose a constitutional amendment.
The survey—and the Board’s recommendation—comes on the heels of a failed attempt to rearrange Department of Education leadership through the controversial Senate File 104.