Gov. Mark Gordon signed eight more bills on March 13.
K-12 school select legislative committee
HB 316 focuses on recalibrating the state’s K-12 funding model. It creates a legislative committee and funds a study to do just that.
2025 is a recalibration year. By law, every five years, the state reevaluates whether it’s providing a modern education as required by the Constitution and figures out how much that education costs. Gordon said the study funded by this bill “will help determine necessary updates, guiding the Legislature’s school funding decisions for the next biennium.”
A bipartisan group of six senators and six representatives will be appointed by the Senate president and House speaker by the end of March.
This comes after a recent ruling by a Laramie County judge that the state’s public school funding model is unconstitutional because it hasn’t properly accounted for inflation. The judge ordered the state to put more money into its education system and update its funding model.
Fairness in sports
SF 44 bans transgender students from playing college sports. During the session, state legislators backing the bill said it was a way to preserve fairness in college athletics.
This past fall, the University of Wyoming women’s volleyball forfeited a couple of games against San José State University. The team allegedly had a transgender player. According to reporting by ESPN, “The volleyball player has not spoken about her identity, and San Jose State has not commented on her identity due to federal privacy laws.”
Require pornography websites to verify age
Almost 20 states require adult content sites to verify ages. Now Wyoming is among them. Proponents of HB 43 told legislators that kids are being targeted with obscene material and often stumble upon these websites by accident.
However, this type of law is facing legal challenges. Some civil liberties advocates, like the ACLU, say it violates privacy and free speech rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating a similar Texas law and is expected to release a decision this summer.
The governor signed the following bills on Mar. 13. Click this link and search by bill number or title to see drafts of the bill. A regularly updated list of bills Gordon has signed, let become into law without his signature and vetoed is here.
Enrolled Act, Bill #, Bill Title
HEA0068 HB0316 School finance-model recalibration-2.
HEA0070 HB0043 Age verification for websites with harmful material.
HEA0072 HB0280 Sex offender registration.
SEA0072 SF0086 Alternative teaching certificate.
SEA0080 SF0010 Settlement agreements for minors-parental authorization.
SEA0083 SF0022 Ground for termination of parental rights-guardianship.
SEA0094 SF0044 Fairness in sports-intercollegiate athletics.
SEA0097 SF0034 School finance-routine and major maintenance calculations.
