Halfway through legislative session, school officials are “fearful for the future”
Lab school legislation cleared the Senate Monday. Other proposals would eliminate gun-free zones and allegedly leave “no oversight, no guardrails” for private and home schools.
The Wyoming Senate has passed legislation seeking to preserve the University of Wyoming Lab School — over and despite objections from the university where it is located and the school district that manages it.
Senate File 126 would mandate the entities reach an agreement to keep the school open and operating under the auspices of Albany County School District No. 1.
During a school board meeting last week, CFO Trystin Green said she was worried about the district’s ability to bear the financial weight of another elementary school.
“I’m really quite fearful for our future and who’s going to go bankrupt first: districts or the state account that pays districts,” Green said. “I can’t even guarantee that we’re not going to have to cut jobs to cover this.”
Staring down this and a wide-ranging slate of other education-related bills, school officials said they were extremely worried about what the current session could mean for the future.
During a rundown of the proposed legislation, district employees highlighted bills that could hurt the district’s finances, impact the viability and quality of public education statewide, and hinder the physical safety of their students.
“I think this has been the most depressing legislative session I've ever witnessed in my entire life, regardless of where I live,” Superintendent John Goldhardt said.
SF126, the lab school legislation, has divided the Laramie community from the start — pitting the local lawmakers who brought the bill against both university officials and school district leaders.
The UW Lab School has served as both a unique K-8 option for children in Albany County and as a training ground for aspiring teachers enrolled in UW’s College of Education. For the last two decades, the school has been authorized by a series of agreements between the university and the school district, but negotiations over the next such agreement broke down last year.
UW offered the district a one-year extension for the lab school before their eviction. The school board used that time to collect community feedback and decide on a path forward. They opted to close the lab school rather than relocate it, and to redistribute its resources and students throughout the community’s four other elementaries and Laramie Middle School.
Lawmakers — including Albany County’s entire bipartisan delegation — began pushing for a legislative solution, citing the school’s importance to the entire state as a testing ground for new pedagogical methods and as a “lab” for future educators.
“This needs to be a legislative decision,” Laramie Sen. Chris Rothfuss (SD-9) said during a recent Senate Education Committee hearing. “This is a state institution.”
Though they initially couldn’t agree on a path forward, the university and the school district are now united in their opposition to the legislation. Both entities insist they should be allowed to “move on” from the lab school and to chart their own path forward.
“This legislation is forcing a partnership between two entities who do not want it and who are facing declining resources in the immediate and long-term future,” Trustee Emily Siegel-Stanton said during last week’s school board meeting. “I can’t make this make sense as a decision for the health and stability of our whole school district.”
Advancing out of the Senate
The Senate passed the lab school legislation with an 18-12 vote that included some notable flips.
Albany County Sen. Gary Crum (SD-10) voted against the legislation, despite having co-sponsored it.
“The reason I sponsored it was I thought there needed to be a good hearing on the issues,” Crum told the Laramie Reporter. “The University of Wyoming and the school district did not seem to be communicating well together, and this process allowed that to happen.”
Now that the discussion’s happened, Crum said he doesn’t want to force the district into a decision regarding the lab school.
“I believe this is very much a local control issue,” he said. “I believe in local control. And I believe this is a school district, and a University of Wyoming, decision. And I don't think the state of Wyoming should be involved in that decision.”
Evanston Sen. Wendy Schuler (SD-15), another co-sponsor on the legislation, had initially voted against the bill in committee, but voted in favor of it on the chamber floor.
Laramie’s Sen. Rothfuss, meanwhile, has been a consistent champion of the legislation.
He signed a letter this fall outlining his and his fellow Albany County delegates’ intentions of bringing just such a bill; he then appeared as the bill’s primary sponsor and defended it during its hearing before the Senate Education Committee. As a member of that committee, he voted to advance it, and he voted for it again on the chamber floor.
But the bill attracted some pushback during its third and final reading in the Senate — mainly from Afton Sen. Dan Dockstader (SD-16). He argued Wyoming should train its teachers throughout the state rather than at a specific location like the University of Wyoming campus.
“I can’t get past the point of feeling that we’re missing an opportunity to involve the rest of the state,” Dockstader said. “Let’s not keep them in the university setting, in a lab school just over the hill. Let’s involve all of our school districts.”
Several other senators highlighted that Dockstader’s proposal is already standard operating procedure for the College of Education; despite the lab school’s long history as an on-campus training ground, student teachers are regularly placed in communities around the state.
“That’s not really the issue at all,” Cheyenne Sen. Tara Nethercott (SD-4) said. “I’ve never heard, or even think it’s a relevant argument, that the lab school is somehow preventing student teachers from teaching throughout the state of Wyoming. In fact, they should be graduating so many that the one K-8 lab school can’t take all the education students.”
Dockstader said he appreciated the discussion but doubled down on his opposition to the bill.
“This is probably an issue that needs to be resolved on the campus of that university, and not have an override from the Senate,” he said.
The bill has been sent to the House but has not yet been assigned to a committee. If and when it reaches that point, the public will have one last opportunity to comment.
The other bills scaring ACSD No. 1
SF126 is Albany County Schools’ primary source of angst. It’s far from the only source.
During the school board’s meeting last week, officials provided the trustees with a rundown of the legislation most likely to alter life for the students, employees and leaders of Albany County School District No. 1.
Private schools with state money, home schools without oversight
House Bill 199, dubbed the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act, represents a major expansion of the voucher program established last year.
Under the current program, low-income families can receive $6,000 a year per child to pay for tuition at a private or even religious charter school.
HB199 ups that payment to $7,000 and removes the income limits.
The bill generated fierce debate on the House floor, but ultimately passed on its third and final reading with a 39-21 vote. It then passed the Senate Education Committee with a 3-2 vote on Wednesday. The committee changed the bill’s name to the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act while adding student assessment and other requirements.
Another bill, the Homeschool Freedom Act, removes “the requirement that a home-based educational program submit curriculum to the local school board.” It passed in the House with a 54-6 vote and has been added to the Senate Education Committee’s docket.
Taken together and as originally written, Chief Student Advocacy Officer Steve Slyman said the pair of bills would remove much of the oversight that ensures students are receiving a “progressive and sequential curricular program.”
“That’s all going to go away with House Bill 199,” Slyman said. “There will be no oversight, no guardrails … I feel like it’s tied together and a way for constituents of certain senators or representatives to get the private schools that they want. ‘Here’s a way to make it happen — we’ll give you $7,000 per child.’”
School officials said they were worried the voucher program, with its sizable payouts, will incentivize families to abandon public schools while also draining state resources at a time when public education funding is under threat.
HB199, the voucher program expansion bill, is sponsored by Albany County Rep. Ocean Andrew (HD-46).
Bringing guns to school
Three bills filed this session took aim at gun-free school zones or other state laws limiting firearms. Two of these bills are now dead.
One bill, House Bill 174, lowering the age to acquire a concealed carry permit from 21 to 18 (opening the door for some high school students to carry on campus), died when the House Judiciary Committee missed the deadline to consider it Friday.
Another bill, Senate File 37, establishing “enhanced” concealed carry permits — then allowing holders of such a permit to carry in schools and other government facilities — died in a similar fashion when the Senate Agriculture Committee missed the same deadline.
But one bill remains and continues to advance at a steady clip.
House Bill 172 would eliminate gun-free zones, allowing anyone bearing a state-issued concealed carry permit to bring a gun into “any public elementary or secondary school facility” and “any public college or university facility,” as well as any alcohol-free athletic event hosted by either. The bill has cleared the Wyoming House and has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Much of the school board discussion last week focused on the bills that have since died. Chair Beth Bear floated the idea of pushing for an amendment to the age-lowering bill to explicitly prohibit students from carrying at school.
“They’re not listening to anybody that this will impact, so I don’t know how I would push for an amendment, but I think we need to somehow try,” Bear said.
Ultimately, Friday was the final opportunity for HB174 and SF37 to be heard in committee. As they failed to pass that hurdle, both are now dead.
Alternative teaching certificates, summer vacation
Three bills filed this session aimed to rework standards around the hiring and employment of teachers. As with the gun bills, two of these three bills have died since the school board hosted its meeting last week.
House Bill 100, allowing districts to hire uncertified personnel, failed to clear the House Education Committee before the Friday deadline to do so.
Senate File 188, altering teacher tenure, failed to clear the Senate Education Committee before the same deadline.
But Senate File 86, legitimizing “alternative teaching certificates,” continues apace.
As Chief Human Resources Officer Nathan Cowper clarified during the board’s meeting, ACSD No. 1 would not be required to hire those with such an alternative certificate. The bill allows a district to do so but does not require it.
Trustee Nate Martin said the bill was not really written with public schools in mind. He said it’s part of a larger push to weaken or defund public education and empower charter schools in their place.
“This law isn’t meant for teachers who are supposed to work at ACSD No. 1,” he said. “When you’re implementing a private school voucher program, when you’re allowing teachers to not be certified, when you’re busting the cap off the number of charter schools — these bills aren’t meant to apply to the system that exists right now. They are meant to dismantle the public education system as we know it and replace it with one that is privatized and completely unregulated.”
Other bills the local school district is watching include:
House Bill 86, which details provisions for “budgeting, planning and reporting for capital construction projects, major maintenance and routine maintenance for public buildings, facilities and sites,” including schools. HB86 passed in the House with a 57-0 vote and has been assigned to Senate Appropriations;
House Bill 156, which prohibits “expenditure of state funds generated by the foundation program on capital construction” and “expenditure of major maintenance funds on enhancements.” It passed second reading in the House;
Senate File 72, the “Summer vacation preservation act,” which mandates that the school year start after Labor Day and conclude before Memorial Day, while shortening the number of required days from 175 to 165. Superintendent Goldhardt told the board it would be difficult for teachers to cover everything they’re required to in that more limited timeframe. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Rothfuss and Rep. Andrew. It passed out of the Senate with a 17-13 vote and has been assigned to the House Education Committee.