SENATE VOTES TO FURTHER CUT WYOMING K-12 EDUCATION FUNDING
Appropriations is the name of the game! Today, both the House and the Senate began amending the proposed supplemental budget.
On the house side, no cuts were proposed to the ECA.
Today the senate considered 51 amendments and the house considered 39 amendments on the budget bill.
Of special interest to WEA members is the passage of
SF 0001
Amendment 39
, which the senate voted to cut the External Cost Adjustment, budgeted at $18 million, in half. This will exacerbate the cuts implemented last year and will
put the funding model next year below the floor of the constitutional mandate that education be funded at actual cost
.
The actual cost is defined in the Picus and Odden funding model. With the cuts to be implemented from last year’s legislation and the proposed reduction of the governor’s request to fund the ECA,
Wyoming school districts will be facing drastic cuts to next year’s funding.
The vote was 18-12, but the debate on the side of preserving the ECA was strong. Thank you to the senators who voted to preserve education funding!
There is still time to fix the budget bill. Contact your Senators and tell them to restore the full External Cost Adjustment. Act now, legislators will vote on Thursday, January 31, on the bill's third reading.
After today’s amendments are worked in the bill, more amendments will be introduced on Thursday, which is third reading of the bill. The budget bill must be out of each chamber by the end of the day on Friday, with a likely conference committee to be held next week.
Check our
website
tomorrow for the results of today’s amendments to the budget bill.
In the senate today:
SF 120
– Student expulsion hearing requirements – Passed on second reading
SF 111
– Community colleges - bachelor of applied science programs – passed on third reading; moves to the house.
In the Senate Education Committee tomorrow at 8 am:
SF 145
– State trust land revenues
SJ 0007
– School capital construction – constitutional amendment
In the House today:
Yesterday on COW
HB 136
School district teacher adjustment failed on a 21-36-3 vote
HB 117
– College Entrance exam-written component which removes the requirement for the writing component of the ACT passed COW yesterday and second reading today
HB 132
– Hathaway scholarship-award increase passed COW yesterday and second reading today
In House Education Committee last night
HB 204
– Common college transcript-implementation passed out of committee and will be placed on general file
HB 182
– Special education funding failed on a 2-6-1 vote
HB 193 – Wyoming career technical pathway workforce strategy failed on a 3-5-1 vote
HB 250
– committee colleges-baccalaureate degree programs failed on a 4-4-1 vote
COW today in the house
HB 147
– language K-2 foreign requirement, which removes the mandate to teach foreign language in K-2 passed COW
HB 133
– Hathaway expand Wyoming scholarships passed COW
HB 01
– General government appropriations passed COW yesterday and passed second reading today.
