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.
“No Bucks, no Buck Rogers.” It’s a key sentence in Tom Wolfe’s classic book, “The Right Stuff.” Wolfe’s work is just slightly on the fictional side. It’s more of a historical piece with a little artistic latitude. If you don’t recognize it, that’s OK, it’s the narrative of the original seven Mercury astronauts as they compete to become the first Americans in space.
The “Buck Rogers” he refers to is a short 12-episode “cliffhanger” series produced for movie theaters in 1939. It is considered the first mainstream science fiction series.
Wolfe is saying that without funding, “bucks,” there will be no American astronauts (real-life Buck Rogers)
Simple enough. In reverse, you can see it in practice with the Freedom Caucus and the impending doom of high school activities and athletics created when they were able to recalibrate the educational funding model in the last legislative session.
The Freedom Caucus accomplished slightly less than 15 percent of their statewide assault on Wyoming’s academic infrastructure. If you are a Freedom Caucus supporter, infrastructure means the buildings, equipment, and workers it takes to keep libraries, K-12 schools, community colleges, and the University of Wyoming open.
Think of the Army Corps of Engineers. It’s joked that they hate the sound of running water. With the engineers, it’s dam building they love, with the caucus, it’s damning the future of the children of Wyoming to mediocrity on their best day.
Elections have consequences.
“Decisions are made by those who show up,” is a line from the political drama The West Wing that tells you everything you need to know about how the extremists in the Freedom Caucus came into power.
In the 2024 Wyoming Republican primary (the only election that matters since the GOP sweeps the general election every year), only 27% of eligible voters bothered to show up. In most races with Freedom Caucus candidates, they had just over half the votes. Do the math, and you’ll find that about 14 percent of the people in Wyoming caused the rise of the extremist caucus.
Extremists show up at nearly a 100% level in elections. They hope the sane people opposing them won’t bother to vote. In 2024, that’s exactly what happened. The Freedom Caucus saw it as a referendum sweeping away the establishment. In reality, there was just a collective political yawn from the majority of voters. And then these people were in Cheyenne, bouncing around the state capital like they had a statewide mandate. They didn’t. It would have been tragic if not for the brave efforts of skilled Republican (real Republicans, not extremists) legislators who used their parliamentary skills to thwart the assault on knowledge perpetrated by the Freedom Caucus.
Sadly, they weren’t able to staunch all the bleeding.
The Freedom Caucus was able to take a deadly shot at the heart of high school activities and athletics by cutting the budget by 8.4 percent. That doesn’t seem extreme until you realize that schools already augment their activities budget with another $76.5 million in discretionary funding. The Freedom Caucus locked that up, so it can’t be used for discretionary spending.
I won’t report the entire minutes of the Wyoming High School Activities (WHSAA) Meeting last week that tried to address the impending funding shortfall in activities and academics.
Suffice it to say, it will be disastrous and arrive very soon, just a few months from now.
The Lander boys’ swimming program is legendary. Nothing in Wyoming can compare to the 30 straight state championships the Tiger swimmers have won.
The WHSAA has to look at reducing costs, just as Wyoming’s 48 school districts will have to do. On the chopping block is boys’ and girls’ swimming. It’s not as expensive as football, but pools take a lot out of a school district’s budget. The fees at the Riverton Aquatic Center are jumping in the next fiscal year, as an example.
Swimming, indoor track, Nordic/alpine skiing, golf, and tennis may cease to exist next fall. Other sports, like wrestling, may have to limit the number of participants.
Bolles, Florida and St. Xavier, Kentucky posted 37 consecutive boys’ titles before losing a state meet. Lander is currently third in the nation in consecutive boys’ swimming championships. The 2033 season could be huge for Tiger swim fans. Get those fifth-grade boys into the pool. But there won’t be a record if the pool is silent next winter thanks to the efforts of the Freedom Caucus.
Lander is a hotbed for the Freedom Caucus, and the cuts seem to be aimed at some of the sports the Tigers do best. Coincidence?
Their collective insanity represents a solution looking for a problem to solve. Governor Gordon’s budget had a nearly $300 million surplus. There was no need to cut back.
With fuel prices at the pump off the scale, the demand in the oil patch will only increase the state’s coffers with increased mineral severance revenue.
But the Freedom Caucus just doesn’t get it, or they’re simply ignoring it since it doesn’t fit their worldview.
It’s interesting that many of the Freedom Caucus members homeschool their children. There’s nothing wrong with homeschooling, but when that choice becomes vindictive against public schools, there is a huge problem.
In their mindless zeal, the Freedom Caucus tried to cut community college funding for high school students to take classes free at any of Wyoming’s eight junior colleges.
In a classic case of “cut off your nose to spite your face.” Freedom Caucus supporters called their representatives in a panic. The funding for their children to attend Sheridan, Western, or Central Wyoming (and the five others) had been cut in a spending bill.
The caucus was quick to respond, adding an amendment that put a little over $8 million back into the budget so high school-age students could take community college classes for free.
Many of the Freedom Caucus despise the “liberal” local elementary, middle and high schools, but they don’t mind getting their home-schooled teenagers out of the house to take classes at the local community college.
Don’t they preach against the threat of “woke” “brainwashing” “liberalism” at the university level? How is the community college not an equal threat? The answer is it’s the same type of instruction, it’s just convenient for them so they send their little, carefully protected, indoctrinated children to the local junior college.
The WHSAA mentioned other things as well. Cutting down on games played, eliminating regional tournaments, moving from three to two divisions in some sports based on enrollment, and cutting speech meets from 12 to six per year, with no overnight trips.
Cutting in a time of plenty. It makes no sense. But sense just gets in the way of the out-of-state influences that call the shots for the Freedom Caucus.
The only revenue-generating sports at the high school level are identical to those at the university level. Football and boys’ basketball.
Football at the high school level can’t pay the costs either. A single uniform, including pads, helmet, jersey, and pants, exceeds $1000 per player. Helmets start at $600 each and go up from there.
Boys’ basketball at some schools could conceivably balance the budget if fans are willing to fill the gym at $10 to $15 per ticket.
A long shot? You bet it is.
How do we fix this and send the Freedom Caucus to the dustbin of history? That’s easy. Your chance comes in a little over three months at your local polling place.
On August 18, the primary election will take place in all 23 Wyoming counties.
You’ll have to do a bit of research. Since Freedom Caucus members were filmed taking “campaign contributions” on the House floor from Teton County lobbyist Rebecca Bextel back in early February, they’ve gone underground. The Senate addressed the issue immediately. The house took a while longer to enhance ethics rules.
Find out who they are and vote for someone else.
It’s time to throw them out.