Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
There is an impending assault on your local school, and it is self-inflicted by Wyoming voters.
“Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” wrote George Santayana, a philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist. Santayana lived in a period of great upheaval. Born in Madrid, Spain in 1863, he moved to America at age 8 and lived until 1952. In his life he witnessed the destruction of Native American Culture, the mindless slaughter of World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of fascism that led to World War II.
He lived to see the Cold War and the arrival of the atomic age.
George wouldn’t be surprised at all in what is happening in Cheyenne, beginning last week and across the United States.
The rise of ignorance, jingoism, false patriotism and unmasked hatred were all things he witnessed during his long life.
We’re witnessing it again at the state capital in Cheyenne.
The incoming freshmen class of representatives to the house, and to a smaller extent the Senate leave a lot to be desired.
The rise of the Freedom Caucus is about to do incalculable harm to the people of Wyoming.
Their first act of note is House Bill 100. Here is the introduction to the bill:
2025 STATE OF WYOMING 25LSO-0457
HB0100
HOUSE BILL NO. HB0100
K-12 uncertified personnel.
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Andrew, Bratten, Guggenmos, Haroldson, Heiner, Kelly, Neiman, Singh and Strock and Senator(s) Biteman, Brennan, Kolb and Scott
A BILL for
AN ACT relating to education; allowing school districts and charter schools to adopt policies to employ persons without holding a certificate or permit issued by the Wyoming professional teaching standards board; specifying requirements for the adoption of policies; authorizing school districts and charter schools to obtain criminal histories and request fingerprinting; making conforming amendments; and providing for an effective date
My question for the esteemed sponsors of this bill is why stop there? Why not remove certification requirements for electricians? For plumbers? For welders?
While they’re at it, why stop at teacher certification. How about removing licensure for veterinarians, physicians, attorneys and engineers?
If you want to do it, just do it. Who needs a fancy education, a test to pass and experience, anyone can do all these jobs.
We’ve been down this road before, not as Wyomingites, or as Americans but as people.
The Freedom Caucus is an Orwellian play on words, double-speak in its finest form. They are not the slightest bit interested in freedom but only in obeying their marching orders which come from Arizona, California and Texas. These people are devoid of original thought, but they’re great followers and will do their best to institute ideology given to them by their extremist handlers.
The road we’re about to travel was built in communist China in 1966, with the Great Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao.
Mao feared that capitalism was creeping into his communist paradise and put a stop to it in the most brutal of ways.
The first step was to locate China’s intellectuals, remove them from their positions, and send them to the countryside to work as peasants in Chinese agriculture. Teachers, doctors, engineers, skilled tradesmen, and anyone with a college education were ridiculed, taunted by gangs of “Red Guards” and humiliated.
The Red Guards (what is it about the color red that dictators and autocrats love?) were gangs of largely illiterate youth that roamed the cities and countryside seeking out the dreaded “intellectuals.”
Sound familiar? It should, it’s happening in Cheyenne right now.
The removal of teacher certification is just the latest step in the anti-knowledge, right wing extreme movement. You can throw in anti-vaxxers to the mix and you have a perfect storm of moronic idealism.
Did an elected official publicly brag that he “loved the uneducated” recently? Maybe you remember.
Fremont County has a member of the anti-education mob sponsoring HB100.
Joel Guggenmos won a very tight election over a superbly qualified representative in Ember Oakley by offering almost no information on his position, his education or his capability in the house. Guggenmos didn’t disappoint, his first act was to be a co-sponsor of HB100.
A few questions for the esteemed representative Guggenmos. How do you teach a child to read? How do you get an 8th grader excited about learning Algebra? How do you teach a 17-year-old to craft a logical paragraph, defend a position with facts and carry themselves in public? How do you deal with a child who has been abused at home and whose only hope for the future is with a caring, concerned, professional, educated teaching staff? How do you carefully construct an education for every child that prepares them for adult life from age 5 to age 18?
Your response is greatly anticipated Rep. Guggenmos, as is the response from the other co-sponsors.
The leadership in Cheyenne has removed people with experience from committees. You won’t find any teachers, or administrators on the education committee, no college professors or administrators either.
It’s the way Mao did it, and it’s the process the Freedom Caucus is hoping to follow.
The magic is that for all their postering, idiocy, and manipulation it’s not going to work. Odds are the bill will fail in the Senate, but if it does not, Governor Gordon will veto it.
The sane voices of the true Republican party will not support the inevitable attempt to override the veto and the clueless Freedom Fighters will go back to the drawing board, wondering what happened.
We deserve better from our elected leadership.
Do you really want someone to teach your children whose only qualification is that they’re 18-years-old or older and aren’t on the sexual predators list?
The guise is easy to spot. Salaries make up 85% of school district costs. If you eliminate professional educators, you can lower the already paltry salaries to the point where someone is “teaching” biology or calculus at minimum wage. Now that will be an educational experience worthwhile to the kids.
The little darling, the man who would be king, spoke last week as the 2025 legislative session opened.
Chuck Gray, the Californian from Casper, someone supremely unqualified to be secretary of state addressed the assembly with visible emotion and made this amazing iteration.
“Next week we’ll be under the leadership of the second George Washington.”
Ok, Little Chucky, we know you were elected because your organization paid the Trump Team at least a quarter-million dollars for an endorsement, but George Washington? Really? Whether you support or despise President Trump, that’s a big stretch.
Be thankful for the real Republicans that still serve and have the institutional knowledge to hold off this intellectual assault. The Democrats are non-existent with just five in the house, and two in the senate, this is a fight within the Grand Old Party for the life of our state.
If you know established representatives and senators, thank them for their common sense, their decency and their dedication. We’re going to need it.