 - The Wyoming Education Association is challenging what it calls “one of the most controversial and unpopular decisions” the Wyoming Legislature made this year: the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act.){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – The Wyoming Education Association is challenging what it calls “one of the most controversial and unpopular decisions” the Wyoming Legislature made this year: the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act.
The scholarship program, which the Legislature originally approved in 2024, was modified during this year’s legislative session and now offers “$7,000 per student annually to Wyoming families who choose to enroll their K-12 children in private education,” the WEA said in a press release this week.
“The program diverts public education funds to private entities with no meaningful oversight or accountability,” the WEA said.
On Friday, WEA attorneys filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief as well as a Motion for Preliminary Injunction seeking to stop the voucher program, this week’s press release states.
“The complaint sets forth that the voucher program violates the Wyoming Constitution and goes against prior rulings of the Wyoming Supreme Court, as it relates to funding public education and the obligation of the state to provide a complete and uniform system of public instruction,” the WEA said.
Most recently, District Judge Peter Froelicher ruled in February that Wyoming failed to provide appropriate education funding, per the Wyoming Constitution, and now must take steps to modify the funding model, according to the WEA.
That “strongly worded decision … reaffirmed that there is a constitutional duty to provide all Wyoming students with a modern and equitable education,” the WEA said this week.
The Steamboat Legacy voucher program “does the opposite” of that by creating “a two-tiered system in which a select few access unregulated private services, while the majority – particularly those in underserved and rural areas – are left with diminished resources and reduced opportunities,” WEA President Kim Amen said in this week’s press release.
The WEA has previously explained that the voucher program is “especially harmful to rural communities, where public schools are often the only educational option,” because, “by diverting funding, it weakens the ability of many of these communities to serve students while simultaneously jeopardizing the economic and social stability of the towns they anchor.”
“This is not just bad policy – it is unconstitutional,” Amen said. “Voucher programs disproportionately benefit wealthier families and redirect hard-earned Wyoming taxpayer dollars, sometimes to individuals and companies outside of the state, to subsidize private education.”
The state’s public education system serves more than 93 percent of Wyoming students, the WEA says, and a “scientific study” conducted earlier this year by the surveying firm Counterpoint showed that nearly 70 percent of Wyoming Republicans oppose the state’s voucher program.
“Our students, families, and communities deserve better,” Amen said. “Public dollars belong in public schools.”
The complaint the WEA filed last week names Wyoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, Wyoming State Treasurer Curt Meier, and the state of Wyoming as defendants, according to the WEA press release.
The WEA says nine other plaintiffs – described as “parents across Wyoming impacted by the legislature’s decision” – joined the suit as well.
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