The Wyoming Freedom Caucus has our schools in their crosshairs (almost literally), so we are sharing info about an event 5:30 till 8:00 pm on Thursday, Jan 30 at the Grizzly Room of the Cody Library, hosted by concerned parents and teachers in Cody. They will be sharing information, addresses, postcards, postage, and emails etc. about the following bills.
Here is a link to the public scorecard from the Wyoming Education Association. Most of these bills are being approved in the House (where the most newbie FC legislators are) and so the people to contact are our state senators (as well as bill sponsors), as they will have the power at this point.
1 – HB0100 – Teachers would only need to have a HS diploma, be over 18, and have no criminal record. No, I’m not joking. This one seems beatable. Please reach out.
2 – HB0172 Eliminate Gun-Free Zones – this one is truly scary. Our local CKA rule, which like it or not, is an example of local control, would be superseded by this. No background checks, no training, and anyone with a permit could carry in our schools or school functions: parent-teacher conferences, sports events, etc. The angle here is to please allow us to keep our CKA/local control (which they are ostensibly all about), rather than to take it away. Because this one’s going to pass, we just need to get some language in there to prevent all-out permissiveness.
3 – HB0199 Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act aka “the voucher bill” – diverts nearly one-half (47.2%) of public education funding to “nonpublic primary or secondary schools located in or that provides education services in this state, that may include through online means”. Under this bill, public dollars can be used to support non-public schools and our school dollars can flow to charter school conglomerates housed out of state. It would in effect de-fund our schools, as it has in other states like Florida and Texas and Louisiana.
4 – HB0200 Parental Rights Bills – they sound good when you start reading them, but read carefully. This bill proposes “requiring parental or guardian permission before instruction relating to diversity, equity or inclusion” This would make teaching Native American history or the Civil Rights Movement nearly impossible. This will have far-reaching unintended consequences.
Included in HB 0200 in (Section 1.g) is wording that would demand every teacher to submit every bit of curriculum, video, piece of text, radio clip, resource, book, etc…to the state at the beginning of the school year. The uploading and file management alone would cost schools a whole position – but also, it means all creativity and responsiveness in education would be gone; this would hurt our profession and recruitment. (For example, if an English teacher hears a radio clip about Gatsby or an author is interviewed in a podcast, or there is a current event related to the novel the class is reading—the teacher can’t bring it into the classroom because they have not submitted it prior to the course.) This is extreme micromanagement and shows no trust in teachers.
5- SF0103 Terminating and defunding diversity, equity and inclusion – This bill prohibits all Wyoming schools from K-12 to colleges and the university from “conducting trainings, programs or activities designed or implemented in reference to race, color, ethnicity or gender dysphonia.” In other words, it prohibits about learning about the experiences of others, it could be interpreted to prohibit social clubs and even ethnic holiday celebrations like Cinco de Mayo.
6 – HB0194 – Obscenities statutes – would effectively eliminate sex ed in Wyoming schools and put librarians and English teachers at risk of criminal prosecution in some cases.
Are you mad yet? Attend the January 30 event at the Library and engage with the Legislature. Here is how:
https://www.wyomingrising.org/2025-government-watch/
Please share your thoughts