A proposed bill would shift responsibility for reviewing charter school applications from local districts to the Wyoming Community College Commission.
Representative Sue Wilson of Cheyenne drafted the bill because she says leaving the task to school districts has made it very hard to get a charter school started.
Wyoming has just four public charter schools—three in Laramie and one in Cheyenne. Wilson says the change would allow for more diversity in education at Wyoming schools.
“You know, we’ve got what—20 or 25 percent of high schoolers that aren’t graduating in the four years, and I know there are various things with, well, they’ve moved—or this or that,” says Wilson. “But the fact is that there are a lot of students whose educational needs are not being met.”
Wilson also says, putting one entity in charge of the process would streamline things. Districts with little experience with the charter process wouldn’t be asked to ‘reinvent the wheel’ each time an application comes up.
Several charter applications have been denied in Laramie County in recent years. Charter school advocates in Wyoming agree that local school districts’ power to approve or deny charters has been the biggest barrier.