Wyoming Senate targets its enemies: schools, gender studies and diversity

When the Legislature convened its budget session, I viewed the House as far more likely than the Senate to make decisions detrimental to many Wyoming residents.

More than halfway through the session, though, it hasn’t turned out that way.

Don’t get me wrong, the House remains dysfunctional. Its warring factions of far-right and traditional conservative Republicans sparked fireworks on the first day when the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, while in the minority, had enough clout to kill a record 13 bills.

One was a grant program to provide additional mental health counseling to K-12 students. In a state with one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, Wyoming needs to provide more help for at-risk youth. But hard-line Freedom Caucus members balked.

“It’s not the role of government,” preached Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland), a pastor. A nurse practitioner, Rep. Sarah Penn (R-Lander), dismissed the mental health bill as “government intrusion and interference in parent and child relationships.”

But in its budget bill, the House resurrected the program, albeit at half its original $37 million funding. The Senate didn’t consider the issue, but more money for mental health resources is still alive as a joint conference committee seeks compromise. The House made the right decision.

The issue is a prime example of the bodies’ different priorities in mirror budget bills for the 2025-26 biennium. The House increased the recommendations of Gov. Mark Gordon and the Joint Appropriations Committee, spending money on programs and services needed by their constituents.

The Senate was hell-bent on arbitrarily cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from programs many members routinely disparage. The two chambers finished their budget deliberations more than $900 million apart.

The largest single difference shows how the Senate wants to make political statements by taking an ax to the budget, no matter who is hurt.

By one vote, the Senate cut $111.8 million for the design and construction of seven major school projects. The action was a direct hit on high schools in Jackson and Rock Springs, led by Senate Majority Floor Leader Larry Hicks (R-Baggs). 

Hicks claimed the two projects were approved by the JAC and Select Committee on School Facilities contrary to legislative rules for how sites are selected. The pair were identified as school construction priorities in a 2016 study, and leapfrogged over others recommended in a report last year.

Rep. Landon Brown (R-Cheyenne), school facilities committee chairman, said the panel has discretion to make such funding decisions. The Rock Springs and Jackson projects have both been delayed for several years.

But instead of putting those two projects on pause, Hicks’ amendment also eliminated funds for five other school design and construction projects in Campbell, Goshen, Laramie and Niobrara counties that weren’t involved in the controversy and don’t deserve to be punished.

Brown noted Arp Elementary School, located in a low-income south Cheyenne neighborhood, was chosen because it’s a major health and safety concern. He said Arp was infested with rodents and had backed-up sewers, necessitating its closure and busing kids to another school across town.

If the Senate’s decision makes it into the final budget bill, it would unnecessarily delay projects, causing higher costs. It’s unfair to school districts and taxpayers.

Meanwhile, the Senate continued micromanaging the University of Wyoming. The House wisely rejected similar budget amendments.

The Senate voted to defund UW’s gender studies program. Sen. Cheri Steinmetz (R-Lingle), who has targeted the program for years, argued the university shouldn’t “take sides on this issue and put forth more of an ideology than a program.”

Sen. Bo Biteman (R-Ranchester) blasted the program as out-of-touch with Wyoming values and part of a campaign to turn people into liberals. Really? The potential for a few more progressives on campus is going to completely shake up the state’s political power structure, so an entire academic program has to be wiped out?

Say it ain’t so, Bo.

“I have some cowboys that have some pretty colorful language when it comes to this, that I won’t repeat on the Senate floor,” Biteman said. I applaud him for his restraint, but he should have stopped there. Instead, Biteman offered his own obnoxious assessment of the program: “The world needs more cowboys. The world does not need more social justice warriors.”

Sen. Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne) said eliminating the program would set a dangerous precedent, undermining academic freedom.

“When you don’t like an idea or a concept and the government — the all-powerful centralized government — chooses to stop that speech, to stop the sharing of those ideas, even those you disagree with so profoundly, that are contrary to your morals and your values, that is against freedom,” she said.

Steinmetz sponsored another amendment to bar state funding for UW’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Naturally, the Senate approved it! Why would anyone think the so-called “Equality State” — famous as the nation’s first to grant women the right to vote — could possibly support such un-American values?

Sen. Anthony Bouchard (R-Cheyenne) offered a particularly bizarre reason for getting rid of DEI. He claimed some people are favored in the aviation industry for their racial diversity, rather than their competence.

“Our voters sent us here because they’re sick and tired of seeing this on the news, and they want us to vote this stuff out,” Bouchard said.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie), who teaches at UW, said while the DEI office assists people who are from different backgrounds and ethnic cultures than the majority of students, it has a broader mission.

The university has many first-generation students unfamiliar with aspects of living on the Laramie campus when they arrive.

“If their parents don’t know how to navigate a university, who’s going to provide that service?” Rothfuss asked.

Wyoming is part of the backlash against DEI in red states. Experts in the field recently told CNN it helps build workplaces that more broadly reflect all of America, and foster safer, more inclusive work environments for people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, socio-economic backgrounds and religious identities. 

Diversity scares far-right Wyoming legislators. They want to eliminate the campus DEI office because they fear educational programs will result in white people losing too many jobs to ethnic minorities. Since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted affirmative action admissions last year, it won’t happen anytime soon, especially in a state where white residents comprise nearly 85% of the population. 

Last May, the Texas Legislature became one of the first in the nation to pass an anti-DEI law at universities. Advocates of such laws label DEI initiatives racist, an absurd claim promoted in the 20 other states that have filed more than 50 bills this year to restrict or eliminate DEI initiatives. 

Wyoming Republicans are banking on immigration being one of the dominant issues by the November general election. One thing in the state budget the Senate and House agree on is giving the governor the authority to spend $2 million to help Texas secure its border with Mexico. 

No wonder the Senate wants to get rid of an office that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion. 

That $2 million gift to Texas makes sense now. If our lawmakers didn’t spend it to keep minorities on the other side of the border, we’d probably just waste all that money building safe schools for our kids and an inclusive college for our young adults.