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School Districts Request Inflation-Adjusted Funding

Audio Luci Store via Flickr Creative Commons

Seven school districts in Wyoming are arguing that the state has underfunded K-12 schools in the past several years by failing to adjust for inflation.

The coalition says the state owes Wyoming’s school districts $151 million dollars for the last three years.

State Representative Tim Stubson of Casper is on the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee. He says the Legislature does account for inflation in school funding—and granted an external cost adjustment—or ECA—this year.

“We actually did grant an ECA through this last budget—a small one," Stubson says. "And many argue that it wasn’t warranted, so—to say that we haven’t met our constitutional mandate for educational funding is just to close your eyes to the facts of what has actually been done over the past few years."

The districts calling for inflation adjustments include Campbell County School District 1, Carbon County School District 1, Johnson County School District 1, Sheridan County School District 1, Sublette County School District 1, Sweetwater County School District 2 and Teton County School District 1.

They say the lack of funding has forced schools to cut key programs and positions. Superintendents for these districts presented their concerns to Governor Mead in a meeting earlier this month. 

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