The Campbell County District School Board passed a resolution authorizing a lawsuit against the state at their meeting Tuesday evening. While no legal action has been taken yet, the resolution gives the district the right to sue if budget cuts limit the district’s ability to provide a quality education to their students as guaranteed by the Wyoming Constitution.
Schools across the state are in the midst of figuring out how to absorb cuts made by the legislature last session and the school funding model is set to be recalibrated in the coming months, which has Campbell County Superintendent Boyd Brown concerned more funding reductions are on their way.
Brown said legal action is something his district has been considering for about four years, but first they made attempts to work with the legislature and the governor. "We are getting to this point where we don’t feel like we have reliable and stable funding for education and so it’s going to start deteriorating. We want to have the opportunity to work with the third branch of government if we need to," Brown said in reference to bringing the issue to the courts.
Brown said he’s concerned that further cuts will undermine education across the entire state and he’s encouraging other school boards to pass similar resolutions. "We’d be happy to partner with any districts that would go through and join us in signing a resolution similar to ours."
Campbell County has successfully sued the state over education funding issues in the past.