Lawmakers on Wyoming’s Joint Education Committee heard testimony and public comments about all things public education this week.
It was the committee’s first meeting of the 2026 interim, when legislators study issues, seek expert and public input, and hammer out legislation they could endorse during the 2027 general session next winter.
The committee asked for only a few bills to be drafted. Those include a bill that would modify enrollment calculations for charter schools and another that would rework the funding model for the college courses available to high school students.
Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) asked for a separate bill that wouldn’t become law but would provide guidance to the State Board of Education about setting physical education (PE) requirements.
The bill would reiterate the importance of physical education, and, at the request of Rep. Tom Kelly (R-Sheridan), discourage schools from taking away PE as a form of punishment.
“We don’t take away science from a kid who loves science if he gets in trouble,” Kelly said. “There’s a difference between taking away recess time or free time versus taking away an actual part of their curriculum.”
The committee also established working groups to further study more complex issues.
Reworking the basket of goods
Among the topics discussed was the so-called “basket of goods” owed to every student. The basket includes math, science, language arts and more. Wyoming ensures the delivery of this basket by enforcing various content and performance standards.
Testimony highlighted how the number of standards has ballooned over the years. Wyoming leaders like School Board of Education Chair Mark Mathern have been reviewing and “streamlining” these standards with stakeholder and public input.
“We went from I think around 2,000 standards to somewhere around 1,000 standards, give or take,” Mathern testified. “And part of that was not to reduce the rigor, part of it was to accept the understanding from our educators that no matter how long they had, they could not get through all of the standards.”
Committee Co-Chair Rep. Ocean Andrew (R-Laramie) will lead a working group this interim that will look at putting the standards into tiers by grade level.
Reevaluating the institutions that run public ed
A second working group will reevaluate the structure of public education administration, which is currently divided between the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE), the School Board of Education and other institutions like the Professional Teaching Standards Board and the state’s charter school authorizing board.
The working group could propose legislation bringing the board of education under the WDE.
No AI legislation requested
One area the committee likely won’t be legislating is Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools.
The committee heard from the WDE about efforts to encourage ethical, productive use of AI in classrooms.
“We also want to look for not just the near-term future but the long-term future,” said WDE Chief of Staff Dicky Shanor. “What can we do now to try to plan, predict, for what AI will eventually do when you reach a level of sort of artificial general intelligence, or this artificial super intelligence, where it can do things that we can’t even imagine it doing right now? What does that do to our K-12 system, and how do we prepare for it?”
Lawmakers, as well as some public commenters, were more squarely focused on the immediate future. They raised concerns about the technology’s potential to stunt the development of critical thinking skills.
But as Fred Hollingshead of Cowboy State Virtual Academy testified, putting anything into state statute could be difficult.
“I can’t imagine what you would legislate, because by the time you legislate it, come next March — I mean, we’re talking 10 months from now — who knows what we’re going to be in the middle of with AI?” he said.
When it came time to order draft bills, no legislator asked for AI-specific legislation. Committee members could ask for draft bills at later meetings, but they won’t have any drafts to consider when they meet again in August.
