CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming school districts would see a 5 percent reduction in their state block grants by the end of the decade under a bill that has passed the Senate.
Senate File 165, which passed on a 27-3 vote Tuesday, now goes to the state House for debate.
Under the bill, block grant funding given to districts would be cut by 5 percent over the next two school years, beginning in 2018.
Those percentage reductions would only kick in if legislation hadn’t been enacted to either recalibrate or change the funding model for K-12 education. So the cuts that would hit in the 2019-2020 school year would not happen if schools’ funding was recalibrated before that academic year started.
Recalibration typically takes place every five years, and it last occurred in 2015. The state hires consultants who examine the funding model for public education here and tell lawmakers how much money districts need for certain areas, like classroom sizes.
The bill would create a committee of legislators to review overall education funding in Wyoming.
The bill also would freeze transportation and special education spending at 2011-12 and 2015-16 levels, respectively.
The bill represents one of the most wide-ranging attempts in the Legislature to address the state’s education funding crisis caused by a prolonged downturn in the energy economy.
However, the Casper Star-Tribune reports (https://bit.ly/2k8aYRW) that it’s not immediately clear how much money the proposal would save the state.
Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper and the bill’s sponsor, told fellow lawmakers this week that something needed to be done about the education deficit in this session.
“I don’t want to run this thing at 80 mph in a couple of years because we’re not going to be able to stop,” Landen said. “We’re going to go over the cliff. We’ve got to do what is necessary.”
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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com
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