The State Senate has reversed itself and passed a bill that includes a requirement that Wyoming public high school students must take four years of math. Last week the Senate voted to keep the math requirement at three years.
Cody Republican Hank Coe successfully amended the bill to allow a student to take a math related elective in their senior year. Many had argued that students who aren’t going to college don’t need an extra year of math, but Casper Republican Charlie Scott says a math elective would be valuable for that group of students.
“It will reinforce what they need to know to go out into the real world of work and get a job. Whether you call it business math, or information technology or what. That’s the kind of math that these kids need to know.”
Gillette Republican Jeff Wasserburger worried that it will force school districts to rewrite their class requirements in order to make electives qualify as a math alternative. The math requirement is in a bill that deals with education accountability and assessments. It moves to the House for further debate.