Judge orders Wyoming to temporarily withhold school voucher payments 

A Laramie County District Court judge on Friday blocked Wyoming from releasing funds related to its new universal school voucher program until he issues a written order on a lawsuit against the state.  

The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act was slated to begin sending out money on Tuesday. Since applications opened in May, Wyoming families have submitted nearly 4,000 student applications. The program would give applicants up to $7,000 annually in public funds for private education costs — though money would go directly from the state to providers.   

However, a June 13 lawsuit filed by the Wyoming Education Association and several parents challenged the program’s constitutionality and asked for a preliminary injunction to block it from going into effect. 

Judge Peter Froelicher granted a temporary injunction Friday. His decision essentially means that while the voucher program can continue to vet and accept applications, it cannot begin to disburse scholarship money. 

“I will take the matter under advisement, issue a written decision,” Froelicher said at the end of the Laramie County District Court hearing. “In the interim, I am going to narrowly enjoin the expenditure of any funds. The program may continue otherwise preparing for the expenditure of funds … I don’t see the harm in that at this point.”

Froelicher believes he can issue his written order by “mid-July-ish,” he said. 

The judge also granted a motion to intervene filed by two Wyoming families represented by EdChoice Legal Advocates and the Institute for Justice. Those families sought to join the state to defend the law so their children can access the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act funds. 

The outcome of the case will shape the landscape of school choice in Wyoming and answer a long-asked question about the state’s constitutional right to give public money to families, regardless of need, for private school costs. 

School choice expansion 

The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act represents a significant expansion of school choice in the state, offering families $7,000 per child annually for K-12 non-public-school costs like tuition or tutoring. The scholarship also offers money for pre-K costs, but only to income-qualified families at or below 250% of the federal poverty level.

It comes as a school-choice movement mounts nationwide, particularly among conservatives. 

Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, who sponsored and championed the Steamboat Scholarship bill, called the state’s 2024 education savings account program much too narrow. His 2025 bill, in its original form, made the program universal and dropped the preschool component, statewide assessments or similar nationwide tests for students and a requirement that providers be certified by the Department of Education.

The bill ignited one of the hottest debates of the recent session. It sparked a deluge of constituent feedback, according to lawmakers, both from supporters of school choice and critics who called it an unconstitutional measure that will erode the quality of public education in
Wyoming. 

Lawmakers transformed it before it passed out of the Legislature; they brought 26 amendments, including 11 that passed. The final version reinstated the assessment requirements, the provider certification and the inclusion of pre-K, though families have to show income need to qualify for that portion. 

Legislators repeatedly questioned the constitutionality of the expanded program. Many also urged the body to hold off and allow the existing ESA program to roll out and work out any bugs before changing it so drastically. 

The lawsuit

Nine parents of school-aged children and the Wyoming Education Association, which represents more than 6,000 of the state’s public school employees, filed the lawsuit June 13. Parents reside in counties across the state. Many have children who receive special education services through public school or are queer or non-binary.

The lawsuit argues the voucher program violates the Wyoming Constitution, which makes public education a paramount state commitment. It asks the court to block the voucher program with a preliminary injunction. 

A previous Wyoming Supreme Court ruling on education funding “found that ‘education is a fundamental right’ in Wyoming, that ‘all aspects of the school finance system are subject to strict scrutiny,’ and that ‘any state action interfering with [the right to equal educational opportunity] must be closely examined before it can be said to pass constitutional muster,’” the lawsuit reads.

This voucher program, the lawsuit asserts, does not pass that muster. That’s because “the state cannot circumvent those requirements by funding private education that is not uniform and that meets none of the required state constitutional standards for education.”

In addition, the program is unconstitutional because it violates constitutional language that allows the state to funnel public funds to private entities only for the necessary support of the poor, the lawsuit reads. 

Parents who signed onto the case oppose the voucher plan due to the harmful impact it will have on their children, according to the lawsuit, “because private schools receiving voucher funding can refuse admission to children with disabilities … and are not required to provide special education services or comply with [individualized education programs].” They are also concerned that private schools can refuse to admit and educate children who identify as queer, transgender or non-binary.

The voucher program will also negatively impact funding at public schools that the parents’ children attend, the lawsuit says, because as students leave public schools, they will lose funding under models that rely on enrollment numbers. 

The Wyoming Legislature has established standards and oversight concerning the nature and quality of education that Wyoming students receive in public schools. But there is no mechanism to authorize Wyoming’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder to ensure those same standards and quality are furnished through the voucher program, the lawsuit states.

“Despite charging the Superintendent with administering the Program, the statute explicitly deprives her of any authority to ensure students utilizing the program receive a quality education,” the lawsuit reads. “In effect, the Program is a black box: funds will go in, but except in isolated instances the state and the public will have no way to know what is coming out.”

Nothing in the statute, the lawsuit concludes, “prevents instruction from being perfunctory, or worse.”

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a significant court decision that resulted from another Wyoming Education Association lawsuit filed in 2022. That legal challenge argued that the state violated its constitution by failing to adequately fund public schools and withholding appropriate funding at the expense of educational excellence, safety and security. Eight school districts joined the lawsuit as intervenors to challenge the state.

In that case, Judge Froelicher ruled in favor of plaintiffs and ordered the Legislature to fix a funding formula he determined to be impacting Wyoming children’s right to a proper education.

Defense and intervenors

On Friday, the state’s attorney, Mackenzie Williams, argued that the voucher program does not pose imminent or irreparable harm to the plaintiffs’ right to education, and therefore the judge should not approve a preliminary injunction. 

The voucher program is funded by the general fund, not school funds, he said, “and so I would say it’s not part of the school finance system.”

The real question for the court ultimately to decide, Williams said, is whether or not the Legislature is meeting its constitutional duty to provide adequate education in public schools. If it is, the constitution does not prohibit the Legislature from creating other educational programs, he argued.

Thomas Fisher, representing the intervenors, said the two families he’s representing and thousands of others in Wyoming are “ready and in the process of signing their agreements to receive these ESAs.

“That is the status quo that the plaintiffs seek to upend,” he said, adding that only a clear showing of unconstitutionality plus proof of irreparable harm are sufficient to disrupt that status quo while the case plays out further. 

The pause of those funds, he said, will result in “significant financial harm” for the families expecting and planning on the money.

Following the hearing, Wyoming Education Association President Kim Amen celebrated the court’s “careful approach” in temporarily pausing the program. 

“Preserving the status quo allows time for a thorough review of the legal and constitutional issues involved, which are of great importance to Wyoming’s public education system,” Amen said. “We believe it’s critical that public funds remain dedicated to supporting the public schools that serve 93% of Wyoming’s students.”

Americans For Prosperity Wyoming, which lobbied heavily for the universal school voucher program during the legislative session, condemned Amen’s association Friday for hindering educational choice. 

“Today’s injunction is the latest effort by self-absorbed teachers’ union officials to stand in the way of Wyoming families’ ability to secure the best education possible for their children,” Americans For Prosperity Wyoming State Director Tyler Lindholm said in a statement.