The Wyoming Legislature has completed three of our eight weeks in Cheyenne for this year and the scope of topics covered by the 550 bills that have been filed wracks the brain and humbles the spirit. As the House Majority Floor Leader, one of my duties is to order each day’s bills for discussion and debate on the House floor.
This is a duty that I do not take lightly. The 62 duly elected members of the Wyoming House each represent thousands of citizens and, while I may not agree with every bill on my desk, I try to be fair and assume that each member has brought his or her own bills for specific reasons.
There has been a lot of chatter this year about education. Of particular note, three bills have been making headlines, sparking vigorous debate. As a co-sponsor of all three contentious bills, I find it worthy to explain them as most, if not all, coverage has failed to shed light on both sides of the story.
House Bill 199 is the first of the three bills to make it all the way through the Wyoming House of Representatives and is now on its way to the Senate. This bill expands on the State’s current Education Savings Account program, and if passed, will establish universal school choice in Wyoming.
I co-sponsored this bill because I strongly believe that public school dollars should fund students, not systems and that parents should have a choice in their children’s education. Under the bill, school-aged children can apply for an education savings account of $7,000 to use on qualifying homeschool curriculum, tutoring services, or private school tuition.
The money will not flow to individual parents but will be administered by an outside party that will ensure that it is spent appropriately.
Opponents of House Bill 199 claim that it will drain resources from public schools. In reality, public school funding is based largely on enrollment and will not be impacted — this bill accounts for this set-up, ensuring that public schools retain their per-pupil funding model.
The Wyoming Constitution charges the Legislature with providing for the education of our kids. House Bill 199 furthers that charge by allowing tax dollars to follow the students — but only if the parents seek to utilize the program.
Homeschool families who desire no government funding, oversight, or interference can rest easy knowing that the program isn’t mandatory.
In an effort to further support traditional homeschool families like my own, I have co-sponsored another bill, House Bill 46, to allow non-ESA homeschool families to operate without notifying their local district of their intent to educate at home. This bill has also passed the House.
House Bill 200 is the second eyebrow-raising bill, and it was passed by the House Education Committee last week with major revisions. This bill amends Wyoming’s parental rights laws that were enacted last year, which requires school staff to notify parents of changes in their kids’ mental health.
House Bill 200 builds on this and makes clear that the duty to notify exists while a child is under the care and control of the school during normal class time and during extracurricular activities. I worked with the bill’s lead sponsor to remove requirements for curriculum and classroom materials to be published on the school district’s website as I felt that lesson plans are intellectual property of the teacher and should not be required to be made public.
Much like how bills change as they progress through the legislature’s two chambers, teachers change their lesson plans and materials continuously as they adapt to the needs of the students. This bill will head to the House floor this week and, with these changes, I feel it will accomplish its intent, which is to keep parents informed about their kids while at school and during school activities.
House Bill 100 is perhaps the most chatter-inducing bill filed this session. It would allow local school districts to adopt policies, if they want, to hire qualified individuals to teach classes without a state-issued teaching license and was offered as an option for districts struggling with teacher shortages, especially in the areas of career and technical education.
I co-sponsored this bill because I believe in local control. If one of our rural districts, with community input and buy-in, sought to enact a policy to hire community members, the elected school board trustees ought to be trusted to enact their own carefully crafted policies.
The state should not be limiting local school boards authority and directing them who to hire. As an example, if a local school district could not find a welding instructor, this would allow them to hire an experienced welder to teach the course even though that person may not hold the required teaching certification.
This aligns with my personal view that we should have less government oversight and allow local school districts to determine the qualifications that they want for a teacher.
Like all conservatives, I believe all kids should have access to quality education that best meets their needs. Some excel in a public-school setting, while others thrive at home or in private schools.
Whatever the case may be, families should be empowered to choose what works best and to be informed of what their kids are learning while we navigate the everyday challenges of schooling in a rural state.
