In a unanimous vote of approval, the Wyoming Senate rescued an attempt to reconfigure the way the state funds K-12 education.
The Senate introduced its recalibration bill moments after the House of Representatives rejected an effort to resurrect its own version of the bill Friday — four days after the House also blocked its introduction to the chamber.
Senate File 81, which would change many funding mechanisms across Wyoming public schools while adding more than $50 million plus better teacher pay, still would have to clear not only the Senate’s deliberation and voting sequence, but also the same process in the House to become law.
That’s a fact punctuated by yet another House rejection of its own recalibration bill, House Bill 110, that unfolded Friday morning.
Rep. Bob Wharff, R-Evanston, asked the House Friday to suspend its rule against reconsidering a bill during a budget session so that House members could reconsider introducing the bill. A suspension of the rules requires a two-thirds majority approval.
The House failed to clear that threshold with 38 representatives in favor of the move, 22 against it and two absent marked as “excused.”
Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, who co-chairs the Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration, voiced surprise Friday that some House committee members who had joined the committee’s unanimous and bipartisan vote to advance the bill helped to kill it Monday.
“Quite frankly, this was a bill - on the other side I thought we had an agreement,” began Salazar on the Senate floor. “We had a unanimous vote coming out of the Recalibration committee. And quite frankly I’m surprised about this.”
He continued: “We have the ability here today to serve the people of Wyoming and the students of Wyoming.”
All 31 state Senate members voted to introduce the bill.
Lawmakers will have the chance to amend it over the coming weeks. Its next stop is the Senate Education committee, where it may face criticism or praise from stakeholders and members of the public.
In Good Faith
One of the recalibration committee members who voted against the House bill Monday was Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, who told Cowboy State Daily at the time that between his aye-vote and his nay-vote, he heard tremendous outcry from educators who believed the House would not operate with them in good faith.
Detractors say the bill erodes school districts’ local control by isolating the state’s block grant for teacher and paraprofessionals’ pay from other funding categories; and by confining education employees to the state’s insurance pool instead of programs of each district’s choosing.
It also may create more drastic changes in the state’s funding by hinging it upon each prior year’s average student attendance, rather than a rolling three-year average of student attendance.
Proponents of the bill note that would increase teacher pay and overall school funding, while implementing the teacher-pay “silo” to protect that money from going to other categories, like equipment or administration.
The Wyoming Legislature is under pressure to recalibrate the way it funds schools. A Laramie County District Court judge ruled last year that its funding mechanism is unconstitutional, and imposed an order with specific requirements like providing a computer to every student, mental health counselors in elementary schools, more school resource officers across the state; and filling gaps in the public funding of school food programs.
The Wyoming Supreme Court paused that order while it reviews the lower court’s decision. But it could re-implement it if it ultimately agrees with the district court.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily it is fair to say the Senate introduced its recalibration bill because the House rejected its own.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
