‘A slap in the face to our educators’; Riverton School Board members oppose bill draft that allows uncertified teachers at public, charter schools

(Riverton, WY) – Several members of the Riverton School Board have expressed public opposition to a state legislative proposal that would let public and charter schools employ teachers and administrators without certificates or permits from the Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board.

Under House Bill 0100, those public and charter school employees without WPTSB certificates or permits would only face two requirements: to be at least 18 years old and to submit to a criminal history background check.

“It was appalling to me when I read that,” Riverton School Board Trustee Lori Morrow said during a regular meeting last week. “For (lawmakers) to think that education is not a profession … is such a slap in the face to our educators who work so hard.”

Earlier in the meeting, Trustee Carl Manning called HB 0100 “a poor idea” that won’t attract “quality personnel to teach our children.”

If the legislation passes as it’s currently written, he added, K-12 public schools should only be subject to the “regulations and expectations” of home schools, which generally aren’t required to conduct standardized tests or submit a curriculum for review, for example.

“If they downgrade us, we should be suing them to not have to do these things,” Manning said, encouraging his fellow board members to “say something” about HB 100, because “it’s not something that we can just hope is taken care of at the legislature.” 

Trustee Jody Ray agreed that “we have to try to do our due diligence and reach out to those legislators and have those conversations, because (HB 100) is completely convoluted and unfair.”

“(Let’s) not hope on a wing and a prayer that legislatively it’s going to be taken care of,” she said.

Similarly, Trustee Bruce Berg said “we need to be really careful about assuming that the legislature has the school districts’ best interest in mind.”

“I think if they did have our best interests in mind, this bill would never be in here,” he said. “So it’s incumbent upon us to contact our legislators and tell them what we think (as) elected officials.”

Former Riverton School Board member and new Wyoming Rep. Joel Guggenmos, R-Riverton, was one of the lawmakers who signed on to co-sponsor to HB 0100 – a fact that Morrow called “concerning” 

“I think that’s part of the reason we need to get this word out to (our) community,” she said. “We need to be the ones that are actually (saying) something … because sometimes well-meaning people do things that aren’t helpful.”

HB 100 was received for introduction in the Wyoming House of Representatives on Jan. 2.