Wyoming adults use this program to gain high school diplomas and work training. Its funding is in limbo.

They are single moms seeking diplomas to better support their families. Homeschooled teenagers who realize they have significant learning gaps in math. Inmates who want to enter career training programs after prison. 

Adults, for one reason or another, who want a second chance at education. 

And each year, hundreds of these non-traditional Wyoming students pass high-school-equivalency exams, gain certifications in fields like phlebotomy, improve English language skills or get on a college track through what’s known as “Adult Education.” The federally funded program with the nondescript name is offered through all of Wyoming’s community colleges, as well as Wyoming’s Department of Corrections and Uinta County BOCES. 

It’s free for participants. And it’s proven successful in bolstering the state’s workforce, said Adult Education State Director Diane McQueen. 

So, news this month that federal funding is being withheld as the 60-year-old program goes under review ignited dread about the future of what supporters see as an indisputably benefitial program. It boosts literacy, increases education levels and creates a population better equipped for modern jobs, said Tonya Hacker, dean of outreach and workforce development at Laramie County Community College. 

“A lot of people can’t get jobs or they can’t enroll in even technical training programs without high school equivalency,” Hacker said. “It is a huge factor in socioeconomic mobility, and so important for supporting that population of people within the state — and it’s a large population of people — who aren’t able to complete high school the traditional way.”

The program’s value is self-evident, said Casper College Public Relations Director Chris Lorenzen. 

“You’ve got kids dropping out of high school, you’ve got the adult education program getting them to high school equivalency, and you’ve got them then going on into the workforce, or even post-secondary,” he said. “That’s a path that we would all think is really valuable to our economies, to our society.”

From Cheyenne to Casper, Riverton to Powell, Wyoming’s Adult Education providers are anxiously waiting to learn the fate of the program’s funding. Some are already curtailing offerings. It’s not hyperbole to say the future of many residents — including some of the state’s most vulnerable — is on the line, they say. 

“What’s happening with Adult Education is absolutely devastating,” McQueen said. “To tear Adult Ed out of this integrated system is going to … hurt the economy, hurt students, programs, everything.”

Little fanfare, big impact

Each Adult Education center in Wyoming offers a singular mix of courses based on service-area needs. They range from evening English as a Second Language classes to instruction on building résumés and classes to prepare students for high-school-equivalency exams, like the HiSET and GED. Some community colleges operate programs in rural outposts; others offer tutoring hours on campus.

To enroll, a person must be at least 16 and not in K-12 school, lack a diploma and function below the 12th-grade level in at least one basic academic area. 

Much of the programming is funded through Title II of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. That program provides states with money for a variety of services aimed at bolstering and supporting workforce development. It is designed to work in tandem with other workforce initiatives. In Wyoming, the Department of Workforce Services is a partner.

Adult Education’s benefits are manifold, center directors say. 

“It is a vital service,” said Sandy Myers, the adult basic education manager at Northwest College. It’s estimated that the $520 per student in federal dollars brings a return on investment of more than $6,000 in tax revenue and reduced service costs, she said. 

More than 1,700 Wyoming students enrolled in Adult Education during fiscal year 2024/25, according to state records. Enrollment is tallied by students who completed 12 or more hours or had a valid assessment. 

More than 70% of students achieved what’s known as “measurable skill gains,” according to state data. That occurs when a student, for example, gains entry into postsecondary education or completes a high school equivalency certificate.

Enrollment in what’s known as the integrated education and training program has grown by nearly 90% in three years, McQueen said. Another major component of Adult Education is the high-school-equivalency program. 

“We are the largest high school in Wyoming,” McQueen said. “We graduated 550 students last year.” 

Wyoming relies on federal funds to cover more than half of the program costs.

Uncertainty and fear 

In early June, states received notification that federal Adult Education funds would be available July 1, McQueen said. Then, just 12 hours before that funding was supposed to kick in, “we got a notice that the federal funds are being withheld and are under review.” 

Wyoming expected roughly $1 million, she said. 

The news has created confusion across the state as directors scramble to figure out what they can provide — and if the program will continue. 

Existential doubt had begun even earlier. When the federal discretionary budget proposal was released in May, Hacker of LCCC said, Adult Education was one of the areas to be cut. That, along with broader discussions about dissolving the U.S. Department of Education, cast doubt on its long-term viability. 

Ten days after the funds were withheld, on July 10, the U.S. Department of Education released an “interpretive rule” relating to career, technical and adult educational programs. That rule rescinded a Clinton-era provision related to citizenship status and underscored that federal funds cannot be used in services that benefit undocumented residents. 

“Postsecondary education programs funded by the federal government should benefit American citizens, not illegal aliens,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the announcement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, hardworking American taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for illegal aliens to participate in our career, technical, or adult education programs or activities.”

The notice “reminds grantees and subgrantees of their obligations to verify the eligibility of participants to ensure that limited federal funding is not being improperly distributed to noneligible individuals or used to support programs and services that serve illegal aliens,” the announcement read. 

This new language may likely result in additional red tape, said Casper College Director of Adult Education and Lifelong Learning Kat Bohr-Buresh. But much is still unknown and funding is still in limbo. “It’s been just months of uncertainty,” she said.

Redemption and second chances

Adult Education directors and instructors have countless stories of lives turned around through the program. 

Hacker with LCCC told of a family that moved to Wyoming from the Middle East. They sought asylum and received citizenship. “The husband was fluent in English, but the wife was not at all.”

So she enrolled in Adult Education, starting with English classes. Then she transitioned to the high school equivalency side.

“She received that credential, and then she went on to get a medical assistant certificate,” Hacker said. “Now she’s going to work right here in our community as a medical assistant, with the long-term goal of becoming a nurse.” 

Bohr-Buresh recalled a formerly incarcerated student who began when he was in the re-entry system. He completed his HiSET as he recovered from addiction and went on to become a featured student speaker at commencement. “He now has a job, and he’s enrolled at Casper College,” she said. 

McQueen remembers a student at Eastern Wyoming College who was blind. The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation at Workforce Services procured a service dog for her. “After she got a seeing-eye dog, she went on to Casper College and she graduated,” McQueen said. “These are the kind of success stories we see in Adult Ed.”

All kinds of life factors can disrupt an education, Jennifer Marshall Weydeveld, spokesperson at Central Wyoming College, noted. Among them: Medical issues, death in the family, pregnancy, lack of self-esteem. The result is a population of adults who lack the skills or credentials to qualify for many jobs, pursue postsecondary education or find work with health benefits.

“Estimates are that 54% of adults in the U.S. read at or below a 6th grade level, 1 in 5 adults reads at a Kindergarten to 1st grade level,” Marshall Weydeveld wrote in an email, citing information from CWC Director of College and Career Readiness Christy Pyles. “On average our students enter the program with a reading level around 4th-5th grade.”

Students come into the program for a similarly wide range of reasons, directors say. There are homeschooled teenagers with gaps in reading comprehension. Widows who became unexpected sole breadwinners. Parents inspired by their own adult children to enter college.

“Many of our students can be described as square pegs that never fit into the round holes of public education,” Bohr-Buresh said, echoing an instructor’s observation. 

Impacts now and future

Funding impacts are already curtailing Wyoming’s programs.

Central Wyoming College’s Adult Education Center cancelled its summer enrollment class, an introductory course that is the first step in completing a high-school-equivalency exam. Some 34 students were registered, Marshall Weydeveld told WyoFile. 

Despite the cancellation, CWC’s program is in relatively good shape this year due to already distributed funding from other federal grants, Marshall Weydeveld wrote. “However, FY ’25-26 is the final year of funding for those grants. This leaves us in desperate need to find alternative funding as we look to the survival of the programs in the future.”

When uncertainty started to percolate, Casper College tightened its belt, Bohr-Buresh said. In the alternative budget it drafted to reflect federal cuts, it axed professional development, shifted around funding pools and eliminated non-essentials. 

Those non-essentials, however, can make an enormous difference in Adult Education, she said. Of the roughly 300 students served in the recent school year in Casper, 18 were classified as runaway youth, homeless or foster care participants. Some 131 self-identified as having disabilities; 186 were low-income; 77 were ex-offenders and 64 were single parents. 

“The students that we serve are people who have incredible barriers and obstacles in life, and sometimes something as simple as providing lunch” — a non-essential — can be the deciding factor for participation, she said. 

If the school has to implement new regulations to certify citizenship, she added, that could pile on more barriers, such as asking students who are homeless to provide a certified birth certificate.

At LCCC, the college has leftover American Recovery Plan Act funding it can use to supplement its Adult Education, Hacker said. That money will “kind of limp us through this year,” she said. “We are OK this year, but some of the other community colleges are not OK if they don’t receive this federal funding.”

At Northwest College in Powell, the Adult Education service area includes Big Horn, Park and Washakie counties — a huge area. The program currently operates classrooms in Basin, Cody, Greybull, Lovell, Powell and Worland. 

“Cuts would likely mean a closure of either the Basin or Greybull classroom,” Myers of Northwest said. In addition, “it will affect the number of instructional hours that we are able to offer at each site. It already has.”

Myers doesn’t want funding threats to discourage potential students, however. “As long as we are open, we will serve anybody who needs help,” she said. “That will be non-negotiable.”