The Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the state’s request to overrule a lower court and let a new school-choice scholarship program go into effect, at least while the case against it is ongoing.
Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Lynne Boomgaarden in a Tuesday order noted that the state’s executive branch asked the high court to reverse an earlier order by Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher that had blocked the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act from going into effect during the case against it.
“After a careful review” of the state’s request, a public-school advocacy coalition’s counter argument and the case file, wrote Boomgaarden in the Tuesday order, “this Court finds the motion to stay should be denied.”
Froelicher had concluded in July that the scholarship program likely violates the Wyoming Constitution’s promise of an equitable and high-quality education, and its ban on giving public money to private educational entities not directly under state control.
Though the high court declined for now to undo Froelicher’s pause on the program, the state’s appeal is still pending. The major constitutional questions are still under consideration.
Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz and Deputy Attorney General Mackenzie Williams in their Sept. 18 motion for a “stay” on Froelicher’s block argued that Froelicher’s order “irreparably interferes with the public policy of the State of Wyoming,” and harmed students, families and schools that were slated to benefit from the scholarship program in the 2025 fall semester.
“If this Court does not stay the injunction, these injuries will persist and compound in the future,” says the AG’s motion.
The Wyoming Education Association and a group of parents of public-school children countered in an Oct. 3 filing, saying the act is plainly unconstitutional and the state showed no reason why the high court should preserve it from Froelicher’s block.
“For 135 years, Wyoming has treated K-12 education as a public good essential to democratic self-government; a core obligation of the State that must be administered within constitutional limits,” says WEA’s filing. “This case tests whether that fundamental understanding will endure, or if the legislature can sidestep its obligations by converting education into a state-funded private commodity.”
Well That Didn’t Pan Out
Scheduled to have begun July 1, the act would have allocated up to $7,000 per year per child to qualifying families on a first-come, first-served basis to spend on approved private school and homeschool programs via state-held scholarship accounts.
A third-party contractor was to administer the money, rather than parents themselves.
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.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
