Wyoming’s legislative session wrapped up earlier this month. It was an impactful session for education policy, but the true extent of that impact might take some time to untangle. Wyoming Public Radio’s News Director Kamila Kudelska asked WPR’s education reporter Jeff Victor about where things stand now.
Editor’s Note: This story has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Kamila Kudelska: What are the biggest changes to public education to come out of this most recent session?
Jeff Victor: Without a doubt, the most important bill this session was the recalibration bill. This was a massive bill, almost 60 pages, and it revamps how Wyoming funds its public schools. To give you the highlights without getting lost in the weeds: The bill adds $123 million to the state’s public ed funding and aims to raise teacher salaries.
It’s the first time in 15 years lawmakers have sent a recalibration bill to the governor.
KK: For him to sign?
JV: That was their hope. But actually, Gov. Mark Gordon did something he does quite a lot: He let the bill become law without his signature. The end result is the same: the bill becomes state law. But by not signing it, the governor can voice his frustrations.
KK: And what was so frustrating about this bill for him?
JV: In a letter explaining his decision, Gordon said he’s happy to see teachers getting raises, but he also said there was a provision that was going to restrict, and maybe even harm, individual school districts.
KK: What was that?
JV: Something called “the instructional silo.” Basically, there’s a paragraph in the bill that says: The money we’re giving you for teachers, tutors and aides has to be used for their salaries. It can’t be used for textbooks or technology upgrades or building repairs or anything else.
KK: That actually sounds reasonable.
JV: The lawmakers who supported that language would say that it is. They’re adding money to public school funding specifically to raise teacher salaries. So, they argue, this money should go to that specific purpose.
But this is a change from how things are done now. Right now, the districts get a block grant, and they’re reimbursed for a certain number of teachers and other positions, but they can move that money around to best serve their district. The governor’s concern is that the new model, with this instructional silo, takes away local control and takes away local flexibility.
Kim Amen, president of the Wyoming Education Association, told me she’s grateful for the increased funding and hopeful it will mean raises for teachers, but shares this concern.
Kim Amen: The hard part is that, being given that money, the districts were also told: You have to use it a certain way, and you have to revamp your whole system.
KK: So is that going to harm districts? To lose this flexibility?
JV: That’s the $123 million question. Amen says it’s too early to say. Each district is going to have to craft its own budget under this new system, and some have already expressed worry about doing that, especially in time for the next fiscal year, which begins this summer. We’re waiting to see what 48 different school districts do with the new system handed to them by the state.
KK: Okay. We will check back in on that. What else happened this year?
JV: Lawmakers also passed a more routine bill funding new school construction and old school demolition.
Beyond that, another important change lawmakers made – probably the next biggest thing they did related to education after recalibration – was creating a statewide literacy program.
KK: What’s that?
JV: The main bill making this program mandates evidence-based practices for teaching students how to read, and it requires regular screenings for dyslexia. Students who are struggling are going to get individualized reading plans, and schools where lots of students are struggling will have to take action to address that, like by hosting literacy camps in the summer.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder has been pushing for this for a while now.
Megan Degenfelder: Our average proficiency for third grade is just over 53% … Wyoming does not settle for good. We strive for great.
JV: The new literacy program doesn’t come with any extra funding for dyslexia screening or to do any of this other work. So, just like with recalibration, we’ll have to wait and see how individual school districts put this into action.
KK: What other bills passed in the education world?
JV: The other bills that got through were smaller and more specific.
One bill aims to keep high school sports at the “amateur” level by blocking students from being paid for competition. That’s something we’ve seen change at the college level recently.
Another will require school districts across the state to implement student cellphone policies. The bill doesn’t say they have to ban cellphones in classrooms or anything else specific. It’s up to the districts to craft their own policy. But every district does need to make some kind of policy. I’ll be interested to see what they come up with and if there are any major differences across Wyoming.
KK: That kind of sounds like the school funding bill in a way. There’s a bill from the state saying, ‘Here’s the kind of policy you have to pass.’ But then it’s up to local school boards to decide what that looks like in Cody or Sheridan or wherever else.
JV: Exactly. Literally every debate I’ve ever heard about education policy in Wyoming makes some reference to the idea of “local control.” You hear this sometimes when an elected official, like the governor, says, “The best government is the one closest to the people.”
KK: Yeah, definitely have heard that.
JV: It’s a very common refrain in these discussions. It came up when school districts wanted more control over how to spend their state funding, and it came up again when some school districts wanted more control over how they teach reading.
KK: But it sounds like there’s a tension between wanting that local control and the state wanting to make sure money is used properly or that schools are held to a certain standard.
JV: Absolutely. Our state has 48 school districts. Coming up with one statewide plan for funding, or classroom standards, or whatever else, can be challenging. The needs of Teton County School District No. 1, which serves the richest county in the nation, are very different from the needs of, for example, Garrett, Wyoming, which has a one-room schoolhouse for two ranch kids.
We’re going to have to see how those 48 individual local districts actually put it into action over the next year before we can really assess the impact of this year’s legislative session.
