District Court Judge Peter Froelicher has again refused to dismiss the lawsuit against Wyoming’s universal school-choice program, leaving the fate of the controversial law uncertain as enrolled families accrue costs for private-school expenses the state program has pledged to fund.
Froelicher’s Nov. 6 decision is the latest bump in the road for advocates of the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Program. Through the program, Wyoming residents can apply to receive up to $7,000 in state funds per student to pay for costs associated with private K-12 education. The money covers not only private-school tuition, but also things like admission fees to zoos or internet classes for homeschooling children not enrolled in public education.
The 2025 law passed amid objections that it would violate the Wyoming Constitution, which bars the state from handing out public funds to individuals, corporations or associations “except for necessary support of the poor.” Shortly after it passed, a group of parents and the Wyoming Education Association sued to halt the program. The lawsuit, which named Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, Wyoming State Treasurer Curt Meier and the State of Wyoming as defendants, asked the court to block the program.
The lawsuit set off a flurry of motions and hearings. The one the judge responded to last week was from defendants asking him to dismiss the case for a failure to establish standing.
Froelicher declined. That means he will continue to weigh whether the program aligns with constitutional mandates that obligate the Legislature to fund public education and explicitly prohibit the use of public funds for private and parochial schools.
The Wyoming Education Association celebrated Froelicher’s decision, which association President Kimberly Amen said allows the case to move forward toward trial.
“We remain confident in the strength of our case and steadfast in our belief that public dollars belong in public schools,” Amen told WyoFile in a statement.
School-choice advocates, including Wyoming families that intervened on behalf of state defendants, still find promise in a May decision by the Wyoming Supreme Court that reversed Froelicher’s 2025 block of the program’s rollout.
“The Wyoming Supreme Court already held that the [educational savings account] program does not affect the public school funding model and that the plaintiffs cannot claim an educational injury from a program they do not intend to use,” EdChoice Director of Litigation Thomas M. Fisher, who represents the intervening families, said in a statement to WyoFile. “The district court’s denial of our motion for judgment on the pleadings in order to wait for further evidence will not change the governing law in this case.”
A turbulent path
The 2025 Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act represents a significant expansion of school choice in Wyoming. It arrived on a wave of advocacy nationwide, particularly among conservatives, and has been dogged by debate regarding proper use of state funds.
Even in Wyoming’s majority-Republican statehouse, the measure created ample tension in the 2025 legislative session as lawmakers grappled with whether it would adhere to the state’s constitution, which makes public education a paramount state commitment.
Lawmakers had created an income-qualified voucher program in 2024. Supporters said the income qualifications in the measure provided constitutional safeguards.
Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, however, called it too narrow when he proposed expansion in 2025. His bill ultimately passed. Along with $7,000 per child annually for K-12 non-public-school costs, the scholarship offers money for pre-K costs, but only to income-qualified families at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s an income of roughly $80,000 annually.
When the state opened Steamboat Legacy Scholarship applications in 2025, nearly 4,000 applicants signed up to receive the money for the 25/26 school year. Then in June 2025, parents and the WEA filed their legal challenge.
“The Program violates multiple elements of the Education Article of the Wyoming Constitution,” their lawsuit stated. “The state cannot circumvent [constitutional] requirements by funding private education that is not uniform and that meets none of the required state constitutional standards for education.”
Thus began a back-and-forth of legal maneuvers. Asserting the program would cause irreparable harm to plaintiffs, the lawsuit asked the court to block the voucher program while the case proceeds. Defendants, meanwhile, asked that the case be dismissed.
Froelicher granted that plaintiff’s preliminary injunction request in July 2025, barring the state from releasing any money while the case is litigated.
The state, however, fought his injunction, and further challenges led to the Supreme Court taking up the matter. The higher court in May reversed the injunction, concluding the group of parents challenging the state program “failed to clearly show they might be irreparably and personally injured.”
The Supreme Court determination that plaintiffs failed to make a clear showing of such possible injury spurred defendants to ask Froelicher once more for dismissal. (He had rejected a defendants’ motion to dismiss in 2025.)
On the heels of the higher court’s decision, meanwhile, the state restarted the program. Again, several thousand applications were submitted for costs related to everything from tutoring to online classes and private school tuition. Parents like intervening defendant Nikki Leck told WyoFile the program allows them the flexibility to tailor education to their children’s specific needs.
That flexibility will come at a cost to public education in the state, critics say, because the program will draw students away from public schools, and shrinking enrollment leads to smaller state budget apportionment.
