Wyoming leaders on Thursday announced they’re challenging the order by which a judge has blocked the state’s school-choice program, taking their appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking Wyoming’s new school-choice program while public-school advocacy group Wyoming Education Association and a handful of parents challenge it in court.
The preliminary injunction could halt the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship program for months or years while the case is ongoing.
Had it been allowed to go into effect, the program would have allocated a per-family maximum of $7,000 toward state-contractor-held accounts for approved families to put toward private school tuition or homeschooling.
The money generally would be granted on a first-come, first-served basis, until the depletion of the program’s $50 million appropriation.
Megan Degenfelder, who is Wyoming’s superintendent of Public Instruction and a proponent of school choice, announced the appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court in a Thursday statement to concerned families.
“I am grateful for the (Wyoming) Attorney General’s swift action,” wrote Degenfelder, whom the WEA sued in June along with State Treasurer Curt Meier, to block their administration of the new program.
“With an appeal, we can expect a Supreme Court decision on the injunction,” Degenfelder added. “However, the appeals process is still extensive and, unless the injunction is stayed while the appeal proceeds, may cause the program funds to be unavailable for most of the 2025-26 school year.”
It is up to the high court whether to “stay,” or temporarily undo, Froelicher’s injunction while it reviews the legal analysis that led him to issue it.
Nearly 4,000 families were already approved to receive school-choice accounts as of late June, when the program was still viable and numerous people expected it to begin July 1.
“We will continue to provide you with updates as we receive them, and we appreciate your patience in the face of uncertainty,” added Degenfelder.
These Families Too
While there are nine parents on WEA’s side of the lawsuit, there are three more who have intervened in the suit to help defend the school-choice program.
They’re appealing the injunction as well, and asking the Wyoming Supreme Court to stay the injunction, the intervenors’ advocacy group the Partnership for Educational Choice said in a Wednesday email to Cowboy State Daily.
The injunction is “depriving Wyoming families of the chance to provide educational options to their children,” wrote the group.
And Yet
Froelicher in reasoning toward the injunction, however, voiced concerns that the program violates a clause of the Wyoming Constitution barring the Legislature from appropriating funds to educational entities not directly under state control.
He also indicated that the program may conflict with the state Constitution’s promise of an absolute right to a quality and equitable public education by placing lesser or varying standards on private schools serving scholarship recipients.
And the program may be harmful to the plaintiffs if allowed to go into effect, the judge ruled.
Wyoming Education Association Communications Director Troy Rumpf did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
