of the Wyoming Legislature Joint Board of Education On Wednesday, September 7, I heard testimony about what Wyoming could do about enforcement. school selection optionsSchool choice is the term that allows parents and families to send their children to schools other than public schools.

There are 48 public school districts statewide, plus several private school districts. charterand some community parochial schools.

Senator Charles Scott (R- Casper), Co-Chair of the Joint Committee. “There have been some US Supreme Court decisions in this area that have changed the world. [with regard to school choice]”

Proponents of charter schools often argue that, among other reasons, charter schools provide parents with more educational options than would otherwise be available in the community and take funding away from existing public schools. I argue that it does not.

Corey DeAngelis Senior Fellow children’s federation of americaIt is a school choice advocacy group.

“These are public taxpayer money that can be used in private grocery stores, and nobody has a problem with that,” he said. It’s falling apart.”

According to DeAngelis, U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that public schools in Wyoming spend more than $19,000 per student. He added that funding usually follows students, a common model in many states. This equates to approximately $10,000 per student, allowing school districts to maintain education costs and spend more on each student.

Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie) challenged some of DeAngelis’ conclusions.

“For me, this is not a question of school choice,” she said. “Our children can choose school here in Wyoming. They can attend our public schools, and many communities have charter schools. In many communities, parents can send their children to private schools, send them out of state, home school them, etc. We have school choice. It’s not about school choice, it’s about public funding for school choice.”

But DeAngelis argues that because so few schools exist outside of Wyoming’s public school system, many parents don’t have many choices about where their children go to school, especially at income levels. If low, Connolly added that the state constitution prohibits public funding of religious schools.

“We have a strong constitutional prohibition against using state funds for sectarian or religious purposes,” she said. We will then go on to talk very specifically about education and further that ban.”

The state has never worked to create a school choice program and has had legal troubles with school finance lawsuits over the past 40 years.