On July 1, the U.S. Department of Education didn’t give Wyoming nearly $25 million in congressionally approved federal funds, which left all 48 school districts in the state scrambling to find money to pay teachers, run programs and buy instructional materials that were already budgeted.
Opinion
But the chaos caused by President Donald Trump’s administration doesn’t seem to have Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder the least bit concerned. Her acceptance of the situation proves she’s a loyal foot soldier in the president’s campaign to abolish the federal Department of Education, but it shouldn’t put her on an automatic path to reelection.
“While we do not yet know the details of this review of funds, President Trump’s education priorities are Wyoming’s priorities, and I continue to support his leadership,” Degenfelder said in a statement to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Degenfelder’s belief that we should accept whatever Trump says is good for Wyoming — even if it’s nothing — isn’t leadership, it’s just political posturing. And we do know many of the details about how these funds were snatched away from states last minute under the guise of a “review,” and how their loss will impact students and educators.
For starters, the $25 million for Wyoming — part of the national $6.2 billion for five educational grant programs — was already in the budget Trump signed. All states will be impacted by this decision. Not delivering those funds and ignoring the will of Congress is a travesty, another blatant attempt by the president to skirt the rules.
States will be expected to find their own funding for grant programs to support professional development of teachers, English learners, academic enrichment and student after-school and summer programs.
These are all successful long-term programs that won congressional approval because they have the backing of educators, parents and communities.
If Degenfelder truly does not realize the impact of this funding loss, especially to the state’s rural schools, she should study several sources that explain it in detail. One is the education policy group New America, which noted red states that have heavily supported Trump are actually more negatively impacted than blue states.
“The loss of these funds will significantly impact school communities, and the impact will be much greater on students and families in certain school districts — particularly high-need districts, often in Republican-leaning areas,” New America concluded.
Of the 100 school districts that would see the most drastic losses per pupil, 91 are heavily concentrated in Republican-represented congressional districts. School districts with high poverty rates above 25% will lose more than five times as much per pupil as low-poverty districts. Districts with a majority of students of color will see 50% bigger cuts than majority-white school districts.
Wyoming has two school districts in the top 100 that stand to lose the most in per-pupil funding if the federal money continues to be withheld for the 2025 fall semester.
One is Fremont County School District 38 in Arapahoe on the Wind River Indian Reservation. It has a 25.5% poverty rate, with 98% students of color. The second is rural Big Horn County School District 4 in Basin.
Why isn’t Degenfelder on the phone with the White House, demanding to know why students at two Wyoming school districts are on a list with 98 others that aren’t being treated fairly by the feds?
Another area of concern for Wyoming is the threat posed to after-school programs like the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which have 35 chapters operating in Wyoming. The national group’s CEO, Jim Clark, told Axios more than 900 clubs could be forced to shut their doors, and club sites and camps “could shutter mid-season — upending care for working parents and leaving kids without critical safety nets.”
Wyoming has myriad K-12 public school funding woes, including a projected $686 million deficit in the School Foundation Program by the 2029-30 biennium, huge residential property tax breaks that will harm education and a court decision that the state is unconstitutionally underfunding schools. Wyoming voters need confidence that state and federal dollars for education are being wisely spent.
A superintendent of public instruction should fight tooth and nail to make sure Wyoming receives the $24.5 million that school districts were told by the feds was coming. It’s unacceptable to simply act like, because we’re an ultra-red state, we have to bow to Trump’s decision, especially if it means all of that funding goes away.
Degenfelder has acted like a major part of her job is to compliment Trump at every turn. It’s not what we elected her for.
What are we to make of Degenfelder putting out a press release on Jan. 20, congratulating Trump on his inauguration?
“Wyoming is ready to partner with his administration to fight for families, protect parental rights, and empower the next generation,” said Degenfelder. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re confident America will continue to embrace bold ideas and strong values. Congratulations, Mr. President — Wyoming stands with you!”
In March, as part of her “official duties,” Degenfelder went to the White House to watch Trump sign his executive order to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.
“This restructuring will make sure that funding reaches our classrooms,
benefiting students and educators first, instead of being absorbed by the
bureaucratic layers in Washington, D.C.,” she told the Casper Star-Tribune.
We know Degenfelder can do more than kiss the ring of the Republican president. The last time I recall she really got worked up, it was to announce she’d rejected $2.2 million a year in USDA funds for a program to ensure poor students could eat when they were out of school in the summer.
“I will not let the Biden administration weaponize summer school lunch programs to justify a new welfare program,” she said. “Thanks, but no thanks. We will continue to combat childhood hunger the Wyoming way.”
Arguing against feeding kids because it’s “welfare” was the nadir of Degenfelder’s first term. Still, maybe she could learn from that embarrassing experience and fight for a good cause, like not backing down until the Trump administration explains why it’s short-changing poor school districts in Arapahoe and Basin, and gives Wyoming all the money it promised.
So when the people of Wyoming were looking at Megan to the be the next superintendent of public instruction, I looked up her background. Her educational background has nothing to do with education. Its business and economics. Nothing against business and economics as I studied them both in my bachelors degree and my masters degree. Never once did the professors mention education as a field I should go into
I do think she served under the last superintendent of public instructions, but apparently she didn’t learn a lot. So I’ll give her a F for effort
I found it interesting that she got her masters degree in Beijing China. Nothing against that, but their educational system is very different than ours and again it was not in education. But in China the provide free lunches to all the school kids. Maybe that’s why their Kids to better in school.
Now Some might argue, that you don’t need a degree in education to become the superintendent of public instructions, but it provides you insight, empathy, compassion and maybe a bit of sympathy into the people that are trying to get an education. She has no empathy, she has no sympathy, lacks any insight and has absolutely no compassion.Let’s take money away from funds that provides food for Kids . Pretty compassionate.
I am guessing Megan never had to go without food. Scientific evidence shows that if you’re hungry, you don’t learn as well. Oh I forgot she doesn’t have an educational background. She was into oil and gas.
Let’s take money away from poor districts. They deserve it to be taken away because they are poor🤬
Saying that something is just a welfare program is not acceptable. We as a great nation should give our poor people a hand up not a handout. The problem is that people have survived on these systems for a long time and you need to gradually get rid of them. When she turned down the money for food programs she was way out of line. Those kids have no control over the fact that they are poor. Is it their fault that their parents can’t provide them food. Is it their fault that sometimes their parents can’t buy them clothing. Again, I bet she never went without a meal.
She’s following Elon Musk attitude of let’s take a chainsaw to those programs
Eliminating or depriving people of education is one of the true signs of a dictator, wanting to control the people.
Get rid of free speech,, get rid of education, get rid of art, get rid of books, get rid of humanities and you can then get control of the people All hail the Mighty Megan. The Trump foot soldier, the Trump orange noser. You cannot tell people they must be patriotic. Patriotism should be earned not demanded
Our leaders cannot force us to be patriotic. That’s what dictators do.We need to be patriotic to our country, but not our leaders. If they want us to be patriotic then they need to earn it
Hail the all mighty Orange One
The only saving grace I have is that I didn’t vote for her. I didn’t vote for the freedumb caucus people either
I have voted many Republican and many Democrats over my time on this earth.
However, in most cases, I thought they were qualified. Mighty Megan is not qualified for this job. It’s way above her head.
Education is not a Business, it is an investment in our future. An investment against brain washing an investment that can lead to patriotism.
Also remember the no Kings rally on July 17. I have already put together a No Mighty Megan protest sign to go along with My no Kings sign.
The review of $6B in education grants relates to the DEI funding issues. Supt Degenfender would be inconsistent if she supports the reduction of DEI initiatives in education but did not support the grants review. No one has the goal to starve poor kids or deprive working parents of after school / summer activities. It’s an effort to divorce DEI initiatives away from rightful grant money appropriated for specific helpful summer / educational efforts outside of the DEI bubble.
It’s amazing the sellouts all to bow to their king. They prove time and time again that they don’t care about the community or the children. They sell out to science and say it’s not real, disasters, and everything going on. I’m sorry you can only blame the other side for so long then it’s just all you. Funny how they don’t want to except their own bill and try to hide everything in it. It’s time to hold them all accountable! It’s time to show them they have more than just the billionaires in the community! Just sickening what the GOP is becoming! No care, no care for kids, just the one that buy them off!
When this MAGA experiment finally goes down in flames after all of their carnage is done, true believers like Degenfelder, Barrasso, Lummis, Hageman, and everyone associated with the Freedom Caucus will have some hard questions to answer to their friends and neighbors about why they did this to our country. That is if they have any friends and neighbors left….
It sure won’t come fast enough that’s all I have to say.
Ms. Degenfelder is your typical self serving Maga-head, so what did the voters expect? The FreeDumb Caucus should be sooooo proud. There are many sellouts in Wyoming, some subtle and some in your face, like Degenfelder. Never let a fox enter the hen house
Degenfelder has been nothing but a disaster for Wyoming education. You’re over your head, Megan, there’s nothing about you that benefits our children and educators. You’re a Trump sellout, period
America’s wealthy do not need education anymore as we have AI to solve problems and American theists hate public education because it makes indoctrinating their children in believing in god harder. These two ideas coalesce in Megan Degenfelder as she is hell bent on saving billionaires money while promoting a system that produces mindless, materialistic drones that believe thoughts and prayers are more powerful than science and reason.
We have seen how her philosophy works out for the electorate by examining the floods in Texas.
They will just say that ‘it’s GODS’ will.
Well done! Thank you.
Wake up Wyoming. The people in power are not working for you. Let’s find some people that want to solve problems and care about our communities!! Megan does not care about Wyoming communities.
As of now, she is running unopposed. Vote her out in 2026.