The Wyoming Supreme Court will allow school vouchers to be paid out as a high-profile lawsuit against the program continues.
The decision overturns a lower court’s decision last summer to pause the program. On Thursday, the state’s highest court ruled the pause was unjustified because “the injury Plaintiffs allege is not personal and particularized.”
“Plaintiffs failed to clearly show they might be irreparably and personally injured absent an injunction,” the Supreme Court states in its opinion. “The district court therefore abused its discretion in granting the preliminary injunction. We reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Lawmakers passed the voucher program in 2024 and expanded it the next year to raise the payout and drop income requirements. It now provides up to $7,000 per child, which families can use for private school tuition or charter or homeschooling costs.
The Wyoming Education Association (WEA), which represents teachers, sued the state to overturn the program, arguing it violates the state constitution and would deplete the state’s public education funding. Additional plaintiffs included individual parents, who argued the program would divert state money to private schools that could discriminate against queer or disabled children like their own.
That case is ongoing in Laramie County District Court, where a judge hit pause on the program as the lawsuit played out. That means no payments have gone to families yet.
Thursday’s Supreme Court order overturns the decision to pause. It will allow the program to resume and to make its first payments to families.
“WEA respects the Court’s opinion and its role in interpreting the law,” the association’s president, Kim Amen, said in a news release. “At the same time, this is a concerning result because it will allow, in the short term, public taxpayer funds to be spent on private schools — in conflict with the Wyoming Constitution — and not spent on the more than 95 percent of Wyoming students who attend public schools.”
The district court has yet to rule on the overall legality of the program.
The Wyoming Education Association has a separate active lawsuit against the state regarding its historical funding for public schools, which the teachers’ association argued was constitutionally insufficient. The association won that case in Laramie County District Court, but the state appealed the decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
During the legislative session that concluded in March, state lawmakers approved an overhaul of the state’s public education funding model.
