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.
The bane of modern middle school and high school teachers is the cell phone. Teenagers, and even upper elementary kids, are now addicted to the electronic glow of their smartphones. I’ve heard a few proponents of the “Free Dumb” caucus give the preponderance of cell phones in the classroom as one of the reasons they want to end public education.
Careful what you wish for, “Free Dumb” fans. Without the cell phone, you’re clueless, poorly informed, and intellectually-challenged representatives would be lost.
Each day, the caucus gets its marching orders via group texts. They know which bill to vote against, which to vote in favor of, and which talking points to avoid if they’re ever cornered into making a statement.
Representatives and senators used to go to public forums; they met with their constituents, listened to their concerns, pointed out their own positions on an issue, and reached a conclusion that both parties could agree on. It was called compromise. The good ones still do. You can talk to Cale Case, Ivan Posey, or Lloyd Larsen about any issue that concerns you. They’ll listen, take your thoughts seriously, and act on them or debate the issues’ merits. That’s how it is supposed to be done.
There isn’t any compromise with the “Free Dumb” league. They get their instructions from far away and are told to avoid any actual interaction with the people who elected them.
Joel Guggenmos and Tim Salazar are infamous for avoiding public forums. They just won’t go.
The problem in a public forum is that you’re on stage, you can’t check your cell phone for a text telling you how to answer the question. You could, but it would look bad, even worse than avoidance already does.
The “Free Dumb” folks are easy to spot. If an unexpected amendment is offered that may or may not support their call to eliminate libraries, health care, public schools, universities, and business growth, they’re lost.
Committees and general sessions are now live-streamed. You can watch the House and Senate in action in real time. The fun starts when that unexpected amendment hits the floor. Within a minute or two, every “Free Dumb” caucus member is eagerly checking for a text message telling them how to vote.
Get handled much? Sure, they do, but who are the handlers? They’re not from Wyoming; that is abundantly clear by the damage they’re inflicting and about to inflict further on our state.
Republican Senator Ed Cooper from Washakie County, representing Ten Sleep, went on record noting the connection with outside interests, “The state’s Freedom Caucus in D.C. has pledged $30,000 to each house race in Wyoming. The Freedom Caucus members are judged on how they vote on each of their agendas and the email that they get every day. The more you are in line with the voting the better your campaign donation is. I’ll just leave it there. No matter what they think, that is what they are told to do.”
Look for big changes in your local elementary, middle, and high schools next year. The legislature plans to eliminate 650 teaching positions statewide. The total was originally 705, but a couple of tweaks saved a few positions.
Class sizes will be larger. Classes outside the mandatory standardized testing areas of math and reading, with some grades tested in science, will be cut. So will extracurricular activities. All in a time of fiscal plenty in Wyoming with a $250,000,000 surplus and billions and billions of dollars drawing interest in the “Rainy Day” account.
It’s not about budget, taxes, fiscal responsibility, or government waste; it’s very much about ending the institutions that once made Wyoming the envy of the world. A place of opportunity where every child had a chance at a quality education and choices after graduation in myriad fields.
Say goodbye to that. It could be ending on the next text the “Free Dumb” clowns receive.
You would think that the State Superintendent of Public Instruction would be battling to reduce, not increase, class sizes, to pay teachers equitably, and to fight the assault on public schools from dark money far outside our borders. You would be thinking incorrectly.
Megan Degenfelder is not. She’s one of them. Her constant public appearances at events not remotely associated with education indicate she’s been campaigning for governor since she was elected back in 2022. Don’t expect her to change into anything reflecting her actual duties as state superintendent. Is a Trump endorsement that great for a woman charged with the protection and education of our state’s children?
If you’re a Trump fan, I guess that’s all that matters.
Friends inside the legislature liken it to being in an insane asylum where the inmates are now in charge. There is no research, no debate, no compromise, no interaction, just mindless rote as the coalition snowplows their way to their handler’s targets.
What are those targets?
We’ll soon see once the session is in full swing, and we’ll be able to survey the smoking wreckage of what was once the best educational system in all 50 states.
When I was about to graduate from the University of Wyoming in 1980, I had three teaching options. I could teach freshman-level history at Kelly Walsh, 7-12 history, geography, and economics at Arvada-Clearmont, or U.S. History and Geography at Lusk. I had offers from Kelly Walsh and Arvada Clearmont on the table, but something about Niobrara County attracted me.
There were almost 800 inquiries for the position at Lusk and 130 or so full applications.
They interviewed six of us for the position. I got a call saying that I was their second choice, but to hang on, the other guy had another interview in Goshen County. He took it, and I became a Lusk Tiger.
Imagine 800 teachers interested in a position in Wyoming today. It doesn’t happen. Utah and Colorado are increasing teacher salaries while lowering class sizes. Yes, Colorado is a blue state, but Utah is among the most conservative of all 50.
The difference between Utah and Wyoming is that family and children matter from Ogden to St. George; conservative or not, they value their children’s education.
Do we? I’d like to think that we do, but it’s hard to justify when you have a group one step away from burning books outside the local library in charge of the purse strings that fund your child’s education.
We can do better. We must do better. The future of our state is at stake, and we don’t want the same people who would have been burning someone at the stake a few centuries ago for heresy in charge of our children’s future.
Call, write, stop them on the street, or maybe text them; that seems to work for people in Texas, Arizona, and Washington D.C. who want to contact them. Demand an answer, let them squirm, but get them to address the issue.