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Updated: February 19, 2025 @ 2:09 pm
Courtesy photo/Shutterstock
Courtesy photo/Shutterstock
SHERIDAN — Some school district leaders believe that if a bill designed to promote school choice becomes law, it would benefit primarily people whose children already attend private schools.
House Bill 199, the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act – passed in the Senate Committee of the Whole Feb. 14.
HB 199 modifies the Education Savings Account program; changes the name of the program to the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act; creates the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act Program Account; modifies distribution of state funds; increases the maximum scholarship award and modifies eligibility requirements.
An amendment changed the name of the measure to the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act.
Another amendment added during the bill’s third and final reading in the House would require ESA students to be assessed on their academic progress.
For the 2025-2026 school year, the total amount to be deposited in an education savings account for an ESA student each year would be $7,000.
According to the fiscal note, the bill contains a de-appropriation of $20,000,000 from the state’s general fund to the Education Savings Accounts expenditure account and an appropriation of $50,000,000 from the general fund to the WFSPA.
The bill would, effective immediately, redirect 47.2% of federal mineral royalties that would be distributed to the Public School Foundation program account, under the $200,000,000 distribution cap, to the WFSPA, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
Sheridan County School District 1 Business Manager Jeremy Smith said he believes one of the fiscal impacts from HB 199 is that the overall cost of publicly funded education “will go up significantly.”
“It has (happened) in all the other states that have tried this, and so they’re not really wanting to talk about that,” Smith said. “It’s not like a bunch of kids are going to go from public school to private school, that isn’t what’s going to happen. It’s now kids that are in private school already who are going to get public dollars towards their education.”
Smith said he believes supporters of the law could end up “creating their own fiscal crisis,” because they are attempting to fund private schools with public dollars.
“They’re not identifying a long-term sustainable revenue stream,” Smith said. “They think they are, but the problem is that’s going to reduce what’s going into the public side, which means that there’s a pro rata share reduction not next year or the year after, but by year three, that’s what will happen given the projection of the ins and outs into the school foundation program account.”
Sheridan County School District 3 Superintendent Chase Christensen said he thinks a good majority of people who are going to be taking money from the state are students and families who have never considered public school.
“We’re going to be seeing additional dollars spent for educating people that were never considering public school,” said Christensen. “They’ve always been homeschooled, private school etc. And what we’re going to see is there’s not going to be a trade off of dollars leaving public education and going towards some private education. It’s just more dollars going to private education.”
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Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 13F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Considerable cloudiness. Low 6F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
Intervals of clouds and sunshine. Very cold. High 32F. Winds light and variable.
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