Lawmakers on the Joint Appropriations Committee are almost finished with the second week of hearing state agencies’ funding requests.
Education funding was difficult to nail down.
Wyoming is set to spend about $2.5 billion on schools, but there’s a lot in motion that could affect the exact dollar amount and how it’s spent.
The biggest elephant in the room is the ongoing recalibration process. Lawmakers will draft a bill this upcoming session reworking how Wyoming funds its public schools. The specifics of that individual bill will impact how funding is calculated in the overall state budget bill.
Rep. Trey Sherwood (D-Laramie) said this will require making adjustments up to and into the budget session this winter.
“There's gonna be a lot of adjustment to the numbers that we see in agency 205 [School Finance],” she said to Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and members of her staff. “I just want to make sure we’re keeping those lines of communication open with you as we move forward with this process.”
Property taxes are one source of revenue for Wyoming schools, and the state passed various property tax relief bills in recent years. But Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette) stressed those cuts aren’t hurting schools. He said the state overestimated the impact of property tax relief and underestimated investment earnings.
“Tax reduction on people’s homes did not put us in a bad financial situation in the School Foundation Program,” he said.
Degenfelder and lawmakers on the committee also took the opportunity to talk about some bigger picture ideas. Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) floated the idea of creating an alternative path for high school students going into the trades that had fewer requirements for math and science.
Rep. Ken Pendergraft (R-Sheridan), meanwhile, questioned how Wyoming could spend more per student than other states but have worse outcomes.
Degenfelder stressed that states don’t all have the same standards, so some comparisons are unfair. But she agreed Wyoming should have a conversation about its return on investment when it comes to school funding.
