WY: Court Stays Unconstitutional Voucher Program

Back in February, Wyoming joined an elite group of states when the courts ordered them to fix their inadequate funding system for public schools. "Unconstitutionally underfunded" was the phrase. 

District Judge Peter Froelicher ruled that the state had come up short on rulings that had been around for almost forty years, inluding a Wyoming Supreme Court ruling in 1995. Froelcher took 183 pages to outline how the state needed to “modify the funding model and the school facilities financing system.”

"You turkeys need to get this miserable mess fixed yesterday," said the judge (I'm paraphrasing).

So, of course, the legislature instead took its taxpayer-funded school voucher program and expanded it so that even more money would be sucked away from the unconstitutionally underfunded public schools.

The Wyoming Education Association and a brace of parents sued. They argued--

* The program creates separate systems of education that are not uniform, thorough, efficient, adequate, or open to all Wyoming students. The constitution mandates that Wyoming provide “a complete and uniform system of education.” Not two separate and unequal systems. 

* The program appropriates public funds to private individuals and corporations that are not under the absolute control of the State. No public dollars for private businesses. And the program, which is an ESA program, provides little state oversight, accountability, or control.

* The state constitution prohibits donations of public funds to any individual, association or corporation “except for necessary support of the poor;” and the voucher program does not allocate funds that can be considered “necessary support for the poor.” Like every other taxpayer-funded universal voucher program, Wyoming's Steamboat Legacy Scholarship [sic] is primarily benefits wealthy families.

Back in July, that same judge agreed that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail, slapping the taxpayer-funded voucher progam with an injunction. The state can't get around the requirements to properly fund public education 'by funding private education that is not uniform and that meets none of the required state constitutional standards for education.”

“The Wyoming court had it just right. Private school vouchers are unconstitutional and take funding away from the public schools that serve the vast majority of students,” said Education Law Center staff attorney Patrick Cremin. “This is especially true in Wyoming, where the same court found the state’s school funding system to be unconstitutional.”

The state has, of course, appealled the decision, so look for the state supreme ourt to be the next stop on this case's travel on the legal highways and byways. It is one more test of a state government-- do you want to fully and properly fund a public school system for all students, or do you want to replace that system with privatized education system in which families must fend for themselves? But it's especially telling for Wyoming-- nickname, the Equality State, and motto, "Equal Rights."