A bill revamping the way Wyoming funds public education is headed to the governor following its passage by both chambers of the Wyoming Legislature.
The recalibration bill will increase spending on education and boost teacher pay, but it will also make class sizes a little larger and change the way the state measures enrollment.
Sen. Tim Salazar (R-Riverton), co-chair of the Legislature’s Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration, said he and fellow lawmakers will drill down on specific topics like health insurance ahead of the general session next year.
“This bill directs pay increases to teachers in the classroom,” Salazar said on the Senate floor. “This is a bipartisan effort. We will continue to work during the interim, the Recalibration Committee, but I will say that this bill fulfills our constitutional duty to fund education adequately.”
It’s been a long journey for the recalibration bill, which was crafted by a team of lawmakers and private consultants throughout last year. The House crushed the first two attempts at passing the bill while the Senate advanced its own version, ultimately raising teacher salaries and making other changes that built support with education professionals.
The Senate’s version provided for a higher minimum number of teachers for school districts, more middle school elective and specialist positions, more pupil support, an annual external cost adjustment calculation, and a change to the way Wyoming calculates each school’s enrollment.
Currently, enrollment is calculated as last year’s headcount, or the average of the last three years, whichever is higher. School districts have wanted to keep it that way because it would protect small schools from seeing a sudden funding drop-off if a few families moved away.
The original bill would have done away with the rolling average and just taken last year’s headcount as a school’s enrollment. But the recalibration proposal advanced by the Senate instituted a two-year rolling average, representing a compromise between the current model’s three-year average favored by school districts and the bill’s original language.
The Wyoming Education Association (WEA), which represents teachers, urged support for the Senate’s version of recalibration as it headed to the House.
“We know that this bill isn’t perfect, but this is a significant effort that moves us in the right direction,” states a WEA blog post. “It’s the closest we have been to a constitutionally compliant school funding bill in more than 15 years!”
The House debated various components of the recalibration bill across its second and third readings, but ultimately did not make major changes. In one instance, a major amendment regarding regional cost adjustments was approved on second reading, only to be reversed by a separate amendment on third reading.
The Senate quickly and unanimously voted to accept what Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) labeled the House’s “tweaks” to the bill.
“There were 18 proposed amendments down in the House, and a lot of different things could have changed, but at the end of the day, Mr. President, not a lot really did change,” Rothfuss said ahead of the concurrence vote. “Some of the amendments that were passed were later stripped back off. So it's actually in very good shape.”
In 2021, the last time recalibration was required, the same committee process played out, with the same private consultants. They recommended an evidence-based model. Legislators amended that model into a bill that would have cut more than $130 million from Wyoming schools. Then both chambers considered it briefly during the 2021 general session.
That proposed revamp died when the House and Senate could not agree on the provisions within.
In 2022, the WEA sued the state of Wyoming, alleging it had chronically and unconstitutionally underfunded public schools. Laramie County District Court handed the teachers a sweeping victory in that lawsuit last year, ordering the state to better fund public education with its recalibration bill this year.
The state is challenging that ruling at the Wyoming Supreme Court, and the specific provisions of the lower court’s ruling have been halted. Among them are mandates to boost funding for school resource officers, school nutrition and more, which the recalibration committee plans to take up in the interim.
This year’s recalibration bill now awaits the governor’s signature.
