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 a lawsuit Friday challenging the constitutionality of the state’s education savings account program instituted by the Wyoming Legislature.
The program, which lawmakers created in 2024 and significantly expanded during their time in Cheyenne this year, will give up to $7,000 per K-12 student to Wyoming families annually to pay for private education costs.
The WEA’s complaint argues that the program violates the Wyoming Constitution in two key ways. One for directing public dollars to private enterprises, which the lawsuit says is clearly prohibited. The second for violating the constitution’s mandate that Wyoming provide “a complete and uniform system of education.”
The program puts kids at risk of falling behind while wasting tax dollars on unqualified operators, Kim Amen, president of WEA, told WyoFile in a phone interview Friday.
Proponents of the education savings accounts, also known as a voucher program, argue it gives parents more choices in educating their children and offers the smallest rural communities options to bring schools in if they don’t qualify for public school investments by the state.
The constitutional arguments in the lawsuit echo those made repeatedly by the program’s opponents during recent statehouse debates over its expansion — one of the most controversial topics of the 2025 legislative session. The debate also brought interest and action from national school choice organizations to Cheyenne.
“They were told over and over that this was unconstitutional and they chose to pass it anyway,” Amen said.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and State Treasurer Curt Meier are named as defendants alongside the state. Meier is named because WEA is seeking a court injunction to stop the disbursement of funds by the treasurer. Degenfelder supported the program and is failing to uphold the state’s public education system, Amen contended Friday. A department of education spokesperson did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment on the lawsuit late Friday afternoon.
House Education Chairman Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, a chief proponent of the school voucher legislation, told WyoFile on Friday he did not think the lawsuit would succeed, based on similar cases in other states.
“Legal challenges like this are expected whenever bold school choice programs are implemented,” he said. “Wyoming’s ESA program was crafted carefully to withstand this kind of scrutiny, and we’re confident it will stand.”
The new lawsuit opens a second major front in legal battles between public schools and the increasingly conservative legislature, which has constrained public education funding while promoting the growth of privately run charter schools in Wyoming. The lawsuit directly challenges the Legislature’s expansion this past session of its voucher program, which provides public funds to cover private education costs.
But in Friday’s complaint, the WEA’s attorneys linked that voucher program to what they called lawmakers’ failure to fund public education to the high standards Wyoming’s constitution dictates. Educators notched a sweeping legal victory in February — during the legislative session — in a lawsuit over that case, when a district court judge ordered lawmakers to reexamine the public school funding model.
“While the ink was still drying on the District Court’s decision, the Wyoming Legislature … greatly expanded the existing Voucher Program to all students in Wyoming,” the complaint reads.
The state has appealed the school funding case to the Wyoming Supreme Court, which has not yet taken up the matter.
The WEA will continue to challenge the Legislature in court if lawmakers pass bills that the organization considers unconstitutional and detrimental to public schools, Amen said.
“The voucher school program disproportionately benefits wealthy families,” she said. “We remain committed to defending our public educators, students and families. Public dollars belong in public schools.”
Homeschoolers across the state make up the majority of the recipients and would benefit beyond measure from the ESA program. The WEA isn’t concerned with the middle class and poorer family of the state, they are concerned with maintaining their power and influence over the state legislative process. There needs to be some active voices outside of the Government and the WEA’s backroom lobbyists given the chance to speak.
In the 2024-2025 school year I had children in both public schools and private schools. Both were excellent. Both enabled my children to excell scholastically. I have enrolled all of my children in private school under ESA because we could never afford to do so without the state program. While the private school is Christian which is a huge advantage, I do believe that children learn more about God from their parents. Therefore the main reason I chose private over public was it seems the private school is able to educate my children for 1/3 the cost of the public school system. That’s actually less than the $7,000 allotted by ESA going to the school vs $21,000 in spending per student by LCSD1.
We still pay taxes towards public education even though our children go to a private school, which, incidentally, subsidizes tuition for over 65% of its students. If the WEA is going to fight against the voucher program, how about they look at the MOU money that our private school pays annually to the public school, upwards of 100K, in order for its students to participate in sports?
keeping church and religion separate from state government should be a priority.
Public education is a public service – a service for which we have agreed to tax ourselves in the interests of a productive and well-informed society. Like any other public service – fire fighting, courts of law, health care, road construction – critical to the deal we make with our neighbors is that the community will come together through local elections to manage that service in everyone’s best interests.
Successful combination of sperm and egg gives nobody an automatic right to the public treasury, no matter what their political/religious/personal agenda may be. If you don’t like the curriculum or teachers the public school system offers your community’s children, recruit and support school board candidates of your choice. Vote down local bond issues. But don’t demand the rest of us pick up the tab if you want to drive down you own road, build your own hospital, hire your own police, or create your own school.
Excellent Bern – thankyou for stating this so clearly.
Spoken like an honest cat parent. Voting for alternative funding methods or the redirection of funds is as valid as voting for different school board representatives. Not every solution should be forced to fit through the current round hole crafted by well intentioned and ill intentioned actors across Government. A voucher program is a perfectly legitimate approach to education.
I hope that the court issues a clear ruling that Wyoming tax money is never allowed to be used for any private schools.
Vouchers are pretty popular and extremely useful. I guess the EA has their priorities.. They def aren’t mine.
Apparently the WEA believes that only the rich should be allowed choice for their children’s education?
“Vouchers disproportionately benefit wealthy” according to Ms. Kim Amen. Real world data clearly disagrees. D.C. charter schools greatly helped disadvantaged students until president Obama repaid the teacher lobby and ended the program and test scores dropped. No better real world controlled study. “Public funds cannot be used for private enterprises.” Read any public paper of record and it is a fact government pays private sector for services routinely.
I think Wyoming schools are a treasure. I think competition would make good better.
Haven’t the courts are decided this in other states? It seems that WEA has found a small handful of parents to help them undermine the rest of the Wyoming tax payers that supported this legislation, and then have the nerve to talk about wasting tax dollars. If we want to discuss wasting our tax dollars on ‘unqualified operators’, we definitely need to look outside the public education system (fyi, credentialsand qualifications are not the same thing). Let’s not forget that WEA was supporting unlawful and abusive practices against our children during COVID.
If legislators think that they know what is best for children I’m here to tell you they don’t. I think that public education is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. There will always be people who disagree with that but so be it. Do your own thing. Lots of people have including my own parents have done that. Just be prepared to pay for it yourself.