State legislators met in Casper last week to begin what's known as school finance recalibration. That's the process every five years of reevaluating how Wyoming funds public education.
This year, there's an added complication: A recent court ruling says the state's been failing to adequately fund public schools.
During the school recalibration committee's first official meeting last week, lawmakers heard testimony from members of the public. Several showed up wearing shirts that read, "Save Wyoming's Public Schools," and urged lawmakers to invest in the state's children.
Robin Edwards said she served as a teacher in Johnson County for more than two decades, and as a paraprofessional and substitute for even longer.
"It is not just a moral imperative to support our schools, it is a constitutional duty," she told the committee. "When schools are underfunded, we are not just trimming budgets. We are trimming children's futures."
Edwards asked the lawmakers not to cut mental health supports, librarians or hot meals.
"It is a time when our youth are facing more anxiety, isolation and trauma than ever before," she said. "A hungry, anxious, unsupported child cannot learn, and a child who cannot learn cannot grow into the kind of citizen this state and our country desperately needs."
Across several hours of public comments, the committee members heard a wide range of suggestions about how the state should reallocate its education funding.
Mary Schmidt, a Casper resident and member of the Natrona County School District No. 1 board, suggested physical school libraries have outlived their usefulness.
"A teacher does not send students at high school to go to the library and research the Cold War. Where do they send them? To their computers," she said. "So are we spending money on libraries? For what?"
Others asked lawmakers to increase state support for career and technical training. They included Rob Hill, public policy chairman for the Wyoming Association for Career and Technical Education.
"We've got a lot of kids that want in these classes," Hill said. "These are our workforce and we can't get them through those bottlenecks at level one."
The state has contracted with a private firm to produce a recalibration report to guide the legislative process. A draft of that report is due to the committee in October.
The Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration is scheduled to meet next on September 4 and 5.
