After some brief moments of tension, a bill giving Wyoming parents up to $6,000 per child to get private schooling advanced to Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk Friday. The bill as passed includes all schooling from pre-kindergarten up to 12th grade.
House Bill 166 will establish educational savings accounts (ESA) in Wyoming. Families with a household income up to 500% of the federal poverty line will be able to participate in the program. Those who have an income level 150% or less of the poverty line can receive $6,000 per child, while those who make 451%-500% will get $600.
There had been a number of carve-outs made to the bill in the Senate that removed its income stipulations and pre-K aspect, changes that frustrated bill sponsor Rep. Ken Clouston, R-Gillette.
Now, Clouston is pleased with how his bill ended up after working on it for more than a year and watching it survive a roller coaster legislative process where a rash of amendments were added and pulled from it.
“All the compromises in both houses came together to provide choices for families,” he said. “I’m just excited for Wyoming.”
After HB 166 passed the Senate by a 20-10 vote on Thursday, Clouston let his discontent with tis changes be known when it returned to the House, which voted it down 34-27. The bill went next to the Joint Conference Committee to find a compromise between the two chambers on the legislation.
Negotiations
On Friday, the JCC added back in the pre-kindergarten portion to the bill, which Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, said would be a “hardline stance” required by the House to accept it.
He also noted how the original bill was created as a form of compromise for those who opposed a similar ESA bill brought in 2023 that eventually died.
Brown also expressed concern about the bill’s constitutionality if there are no income-based restrictions for those who participate in it.
In return, Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, said he wanted as a concession made to cap the amount of total program funding that could go to pre-K ESAs up to around 30%.
The state will be provided $20 million to run the program.
House Wins
The Senate had removed the pre-K, income-based stipulations to the bill, as well as a requirement that all participants receive mandatory state testing to judge the effectiveness of the program. All of these pieces were added back in Friday.
Clouston strongly advocated for the mandatory testing part of the bill, citing it as a major source of accountability in other states where ESA programs have been established. Homeschool parents would also be eligible for the ESA funding, but this group expressed concerns that the bill could lead to a slippery slope of governmental regulation treading on their teaching.
“It’s supposed to be a choice program, so that’s why it got pulled out,” Boner said. “There does need to be a little negotiation here between the two positions.”
A proposal also was made to put a five-year sunset date on the program.
Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, spoke against this, saying it won’t help parents for their children’s long-term education. Clouston agreed and said he would be more amenable to a seven-year timeline.
The program won’t include charter schools, as they are considered public schools in Wyoming.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
