Wyoming must fight, not fold, on early childhood education

Only six states lack publicly funded preschool for 4-year-olds. Wyoming is among those that don’t spend a dime on this important investment. To our everlasting shame, it’s beginning to look like we never will.

My gloomy prediction comes from my observation of some strong public education advocates in the Legislature already waving the white flag. The hard-line Freedom Caucus now holds all the cards, they seem to argue, so everyone must surrender to its whims, no matter how harmful.

The surrender happened at a recent Joint Education Committee meeting in Casper, when members rejected a proposal to draft a bill that would have permanently funded high-quality early childhood education. 

There isn’t a standard definition for such programs, but it’s generally agreed they must address the whole child (physical, social, emotional and cognitive development), use developmentally appropriate curricula, provide a safe and nurturing environment, and respond to the needs of families.

Wyoming needs this to happen. Less than 35% of the state’s 3-and-4-year-olds are enrolled in either the federal Head Start program or attend a privately funded early childhood education program. The average participation nationally is 50%, and the most successful states are well above that level.

The Education Committee has long heard about the tremendous benefits that preschool has on children’s lives and state finances, but failed to pry loose any state bucks to make it a reality. 

Officials with the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University told lawmakers that high-quality early childhood education programs reduce spending on special education, lower youth and adult incarceration rates, reduce drug and alcohol use and decrease state health care costs. Numerous studies show children enrolled in pre-K achieve higher earnings as adults and are less likely to depend on social welfare programs. 

I remember when conservatism meant, above all else, being fiscally responsible with government spending. Well there simply isn’t a single thing the government can spend money on that has a greater dollar-for-dollar return on investment than early childhood education. Yet the self-styled “conservatives” of the Freedom Caucus would rather use government to fight its culture wars, including a full-frontal assault on public education — regardless of how much it benefits individual residents or society as a whole.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) correctly said it’s time to take the first step and find a way to provide permanent funding for an early childhood education system.

Not so fast, said Rep. Landon Brown (R-Cheyenne), who warned that the incoming regime wants no part of that plan. He said the Freedom Caucus is listening to voters’ demands to put more money into Education Savings Accounts for private schools and charter schools. 

“I think the idea of drafting a bill and moving us forward with an endowment for public education — which was really a referendum in this past election — it seems to me there is not an interest in the state of Wyoming’s populace that voted that wants to continue to support public education,” Brown said, quite matter-of-factly.

Wow! Really? Hardworking Wyoming families who want the best education possible for their children say it’s OK to gut funding for public schools? I think that would be news to most of the people Brown represents.

I would have expected Brown, a prominent member of the Wyoming Caucus — the traditionally conservative wing of the Republican Party — to make a full-throated objection to that sentiment. 

Brown campaigned for reelection as “a major advocate for all school funding,” especially for the K-12 system. He defeated a Freedom Caucus opponent, Exie Brown (no relation), who backed public funding of private and religious schools. Voters narrowly rejected Exie, but it sounds like his position prevailed in his competition’s eyes.

“The public education system, at least what I’ve heard going around, is that it’s overly funded,” Rep. Brown told his colleagues on the committee. He added that it makes no sense “to put something in that is not going to hear the light of day.”  

I know you can’t “hear” the light of day, but I’m going to let that one go. Brown was obviously having a difficult time explaining his position. I’ll object to this notion, though — Brown said he’s concerned about wasting staff and committee time drafting bills that will land on the back burner.

That’s what the whole legislative process is about: putting ideas before the public and deciding which ones have merit. Brown seems to believe that because the Freedom Caucus picked up at least three House seats during the primary — and may well get more than the seven they need in the general election to claim a majority — the minority must kill all the bills these new masters hate before the session even starts.

If Brown and other Wyoming Caucus members don’t want to fight for what they believe in — and public education is clearly in peril — why do they even want to be at the Capitol?

The Legislature is often called the ‘Good Old Boys Club,” but how congenial do opponents of the new sheriffs in Cheyenne mean to be? 

Rothfuss made an excellent case that the long-term, appropriate way to permanently fund high-quality early childhood education is to set up an endowment. He said the state has $2 billion in unrealized capital gains, and after approving the endowment mechanism, the Legislature could decide how much to spend. His proposal had no price tag.

But even without knowing a dollar amount, Sen. Cheri Steinmetz (R-Lingle) said it wouldn’t be fiscally responsible to go down that road. Most of her colleagues agreed.

Proponents of early childhood education are understandably frustrated. “I’m sick of coming to this committee and talking about the things that are so good, and then we don’t do them,” said Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie). “The least we can do is start working towards a goal, an end point.”

Rothfuss suggested the endowment be created using the successful Hathaway Scholarship model, which turns investment earnings from federal mineral royalties into scholarships for qualified Wyoming high school graduates to attend the University of Wyoming or any of the state’s community colleges.

Rothfuss turned to Sen. Charles Scott (R-Casper), who helped develop the Hathaway scholarship program, for guidance on how to endow early childhood education. He was in for a rude awakening.

Scott said Wyoming doesn’t need an endowment, because while WY-TOPP assessment scores show too many students lack reading skills, the public school system is already trying to improve pre-schools.

Scott said the education savings accounts lawmakers approved to give low-income families money to pay tuition at private and religious schools also contain some funds for early childhood education. In his eyes, that solves the problem.

But it doesn’t allow all students to have access. Rothfuss said education savings accounts are funded out of the state’s general fund, which is subject to the Legislature’s annual approval.

“At some point, when budgets are cut, there won’t be funding available for that, and that ESA program will get cut or eliminated,” Rothfuss said. “If you’re going to have an early childhood education system, you have to maintain it. We can’t ad hoc it year-in, year-out to see if we’ve got some leftover general funds available.”

Provenza added another factor that should be heard by more than the few hundred people who watched the committee on YouTube.

This was a low-turnout primary election; only 27% of the state’s eligible voters participated. It’s outrageous to extrapolate that the vast majority of Wyomingites want to get rid of public education. 

“Maybe we haven’t articulated a vision for the state of Wyoming that people feel inspired to go vote for,” Provenza said. “Let’s give them one.”

The committee should have taken that advice and drafted an endowment bill. Instead, the GOP majority apparently agreed with Brown that public education supporters shouldn’t rock the boat. 

This bill will be sponsored by individual legislators fed up with endless study of a critical issue that leadership claims to prioritize. Sure, the Freedom Caucus can kill it outright, but then voters can decide at the polls how they feel about that.