After more than 30 amendments, House Bill 166 – Education savings accounts-1 bore little resemblance to its original iteration.
Gone was a component aimed at helping parents pay for early childhood education — something the state is lacking. Gone were income-based eligibility requirements that many said are required for the measure to conform with Wyoming’s Constitution.
What remained on Thursday afternoon was a measure that would give families $6,000 in public funds to pay for non-public-school costs like private school tuition or instructional material for homeschoolers.
“We now have an opportunity to provide universal school choice to all children,” Sen. Evie Brennan (R-Cheyenne), who pushed for the most drastic changes, told her colleagues.
Despite concerns that what remains won’t stand up to constitutional challenges, the chamber passed the bill by a vote of 20 to 10.
Later that day, the House declined to accept the new version. That sent the legislation into a process of negotiation.
The history
House Bill 166 – Education savings accounts-1 has been killed and revived, amended heavily and contested by everyone from the Wyoming Education Association to homeschool parents. Throughout its journey, it’s been dogged by concerns that it violates the Wyoming Constitution’s prohibition on the use of public funds for private or parochial schools.
House Bill 166 emerged from the ashes of twin education bills that failed in the 2023 session and reflects growing conservative advocacy for parental choice. Those bills would have given families $6,000 per K-12 student for tuition at any non-governmental school or related educational expenses.
After taking heat from the far right for blocking the legislation, Speaker of the House Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) brought what he touted as compromise legislation to the Joint Education Committee during the interim.
Sommers’ bill would have created “education savings accounts” for qualified families to spend state funds on costs associated with preschool or non-public-school education.
Though it was committee-sponsored, which traditionally translated to a better chance of consideration, it failed introduction on the first day of the session.
Rep. Ken Clouston (R-Gillette), along with co-sponsors in the Senate, then introduced the latest bill version. This one included a tiered-income system, providing $1,000-$5,000 based on family income. It also allowed expenses for kids as young as 4.
It passed the House relatively unscathed before coming to the Senate, where its next transformation began.
In the end, the final version closely resembles those failed 2023 measures, which Brennan touted. “This bill as it is now is very similar to the bill that we, the Senate body, supported last year,” she said.
What it didn’t resemble was the original text. “We don’t often see a bill with 31 amendments to it,” Sen. Jim Anderson (R-Casper) said. “This bill has been so changed that probably the originators don’t recognize it.”
Co-sponsor Sen. Bill Landen (R-Casper) confirmed that. He was inspired to draft the bill by an amazing private school in his community, he said, and he wants more families of all income levels to have access to that kind of education.
“I sponsored a bill that I thought would work,” he said. “And, now it’s not my bill anymore. I mean, it just isn’t. It’s something entirely different.”
Landen and fellow co-sponsor Sen. Eric Barlow (R-Gillette) both voted no.
The debate
The Senate debated for hours on the measure this week through the course of three readings. At times the debate strayed into topics like climate change, biblical literalism and biological sex.
Several amendments were offered; most failed. Senators attempted to tack an early childhood program back on and also endeavored to mandate science-based curricula, to no avail.
In the end, the measure became a voucher program that threatens equitable education in the state, Wyoming Education Association President Grady Hutcherson told WyoFile Friday. “We need to take care of the 93% of students enrolled in our public schools, without chipping away at their resources by diverting taxpayer dollars away to support the inequitable, ineffective education students receive through voucher programs.”
The constitutionality question hovered through Senate debate.
“We know that it says clearly in the constitution that when we’re using public funds, that it cannot be private school, it cannot be sectarian,” said Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie). “And these are tenets that were laid down by the framers of the Wyoming Constitution for good purpose. So the question here is, do we want to disregard that?”
Sen. Wendy Schuler (R-Evanston) noted the measure had been “hammered into oblivion” by amendments.
“This bill is clearly unconstitutional,” Schuler said. “And what really surprises me about some of the folks in here is we use that constitution when we want to and when we don’t want to, we just dance around those things that are clearly in there. So that $20 million that we have in there, we’re gonna be spending that on lawyers. And I think that’s a shame.”
Wyoming Constitution, Article 16, Section 6 Loan of credit; donations prohibited; works of internal improvement.
(a) Neither the state nor any county, city, township, town, school district, or any other political subdivision, shall:
(i) Loan or give its credit or make donations to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation, except for necessary support of the poor; or… How can this bill be construed as anything other than a donation in the aid of an individual? Amazing how the “the Constitution is our guide” crowd can totally ignore it when it doesn’t fit their agenda.
Stripping funds from needed early childhood programs and giving 6K to rich religious families is evil. Is this what Jesus would do? This does show how much the far right truly cares about kids and their education.
This also shows your lack of education in the topic. They are not “stripping” funds from other students. Public education in AZ gets 14k per student. If your child doesn’t attend public education, they do not get that. Instead the child gets 6k to use as school of choice. Get your facts straight. It’s not for the rich, it’s for everyone!
There appears to be way too many legislators who put their hand on the constitution and swore to uphold their Biblical beliefs
An uneducated, religiously indoctrinated population hurts all of us. Teaching your kids only what you want them to know isn’t helpful to them, either. They will grow up and learn the truth of the world. Private schools only hold them back and make them unprepared for real life. From what I’ve seen of private schools, they’ll let even the worst kids pass to keep that money coming in. It’s hurting those kids.
Personally, I don’t want to pay for it out of my tax dollars. But, the Wyoming legislature doesn’t really care about democracy. I see an implosion in the Republican Party coming soon.
So, while Wyoming property owners (and renters who pay through their landlords) are loudly complaining about high taxes, our legislators are busy giving money away to families who prefer that their children be indoctrinated by private schools that reinforce their beliefs rather than getting at least a minimally decent education in public schools. If our Republican legislators are valid examples of public school graduates, I’m forced to agree that improvements are needed in our education system, but throwing our money at agenda-ridden, often religion-oriented private schools is not quite the best way to achieve that end.
“Indoctrinated?” “Unprepared for real life?” My homeschooled grandchildren are neither. There is plenty of socialization (4H, church, etc.). The only thing they miss out on is bullying.
Let the lawsuits begin. I can’t wait.
The parents I know, here in Laramie, who want this, are worried about one major thing. The perverted teachers in our schools teaching kids lies. A good friend of mine, very conservative family, had a son who got involved in the Laramie hs glee club. A teacher convinced him his parents hated him because they refused to let him date a guy (they didn’t allow any of their kids to date in high school). He attempted suicide. The school did nothing.
Recently there was another incident at snowy range academy (our ONLY decent school, a charter school) where a teacher brought in a progressive individual to read a story book about how children can choose their gender. After class apparently a young boy decided he was a girl. Regardless of your thoughts on that, it’s not the schools place…
We are having a child in August and really don’t want anything to do with the public schools. I don’t want a pervert man in high heals around my child. The school board and the principals should be on my side, protecting children… Instead they are busy arresting kids for not wearing masks..
If the teachers union/ democrats don’t want vouchers.. then take care of business. Get a moral clause in teachers contracts and enforce it. They will not though… Expect the voucher push to get louder and louder.
Partisan hyperbole and paranoia disguised as anecdotal evidence. Do better.
I read your Laramie story and see a different perspective. I see a conservative Christian family passing along what they have been taught that being gay is immoral. The son was able to confide in a teacher and was not judged. Perhaps if the family had been more supportive and accepting, he wouldn’t have made the attempt on his life.
I hope your new child is not gay or trans. Not because there’s anything wrong with it but because they’ll have a much harder life trying to get people to accept them for who they are and being told that how they feel on the inside is wrong or immoral.
I certainly don’t want my tax dollars going to vouchers or private religious schools where this bigotry is handed down to the next generation. The only way to live together is through a secular, science based curriculum at school and then they can be taught whatever they want at home – Even is that is hatred and bigotry disguised as morality and “protecting the children”. I certainly don’t want religious conservatives deciding what is moral and writing that into law. Religion is a private thing and everyone is free to believe or not believe in whatever they want, but religion has no place in government.
Mr Casey, You are certainly entitled to your opinions and beliefs. But, I don’t want to pay for you to send your child to a private school that aligns with them. Having children is your responsibility, if you don’t want to send your child to a public school, so be it. Pony up the bucks.
Yep Idiocracy is a live and well in Wyoming.
If the legislators want the best bang for their buck in education, they should prefer to spend it where it will reach the most kids. That is, in pre-school funding, which sets the young on the paths of reading and arithmetic when they are at the age of soaking up everything around them. Early childhood education helps parents too because they learn from the schools as well and it boosts our economy with an eager workforce. Parents who want to opt out of the public school system may have that choice, fine. But we should not have to pay for that privilege when the money is better spent elsewhere.