CASPER — Lawmakers have begun their first talks on an inflation adjustment for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year, recommending the state set aside an additional $68 million to help Wyoming’s schools keep pace with rising costs.
The Joint Education and Appropriations committees met together Wednesday in Casper to hear updates about school funding from finance and economic experts and the Wyoming Department of Education. It was the first step in the Legislature’s annual “external cost adjustment” process when lawmakers supplement the money schools receive under Wyoming’s school funding model to account for inflation.
Lawmakers on the Education committee voted to recommend a full cost adjustment for the 2024-2025 school year which would distribute roughly $30.3 million extra to schools for staff, $30.3 million for “educational materials” and $7.4 million for energy.
Though lawmakers questioned the significant jumps in educational material costs, which include office supplies, they got behind the extra money after hearing from analysts and education leaders that school districts are struggling and Wyoming is losing its competitive advantage — particularly when it comes to teachers.
“I’m afraid if we don’t do at least something here – something significant – we are going to start falling behind other places,” said Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, the chair of the Senate Education Committee.
The suggested cost adjustment would be among the largest in recent history.
Lawmakers and school finance analysts track the impacts of rising costs for districts across four categories: professional staff, non-professional staff, education materials and energy. The Legislative Service Office estimates district costs will increase approximately 3.9% next year for professional staff, 4.1% for non-professional staff, 14.7% for energy and 21.9% for classroom supplies.
All four would rank among the most significant jumps over the last decade, though they are not yet final, according to an LSO report.
All told, the Joint Education Committee’s suggested cost adjustment would add approximately 4% to Wyoming’s expected $1.6 billion K-12 budget for the upcoming school year.
The education committee’s funding recommendation will now go to the Joint Appropriations Committee, which will make its own suggestion to the Legislature and Gov. Mark Gordon ahead of the 2024 legislative session.
Lawmakers on the panel moved to supplement school budgets and cover the rising expenses after hearing a series of reports and testimony that painted a picture of a sliding Wyoming K-12 system losing its competitive edge over surrounding states.
Christiana Stoddard, a legislative consultant and economics professor at Montana State University, told the committees that Wyoming teacher salaries have stayed relatively flat over the last decade even as they have increased in nearby states and across the country.
“For the first time since I’ve been doing this report – and I’ve been doing it for a lot of years now – other states in the region now have average wages that lie above Wyoming,” she said. At the same time, the gap between the state’s funding model and the salaries districts are having to pay teachers continues to widen, more than doubling since the 2010 – 2011 school year.
Teacher salaries have also lost their competitiveness with other industries and professions in Wyoming, Stoddard said.
“Those pressures matter in that they affect the quality of teachers,” she said.
Stoddard’s analysis was reinforced by district leaders.
Lawmakers expressed concern about Wyoming Department of Education data that showed school districts are putting less than half of their money allocated for professional development toward actual professional development for teachers.
But Boyd Brown, a former superintendent and the director of member engagement for the Wyoming School Boards Association, said that some districts use money earmarked for professional development to try to keep pace with rising teacher salaries.
“You’re robbing from Peter to pay Paul at different times,” he said.
When asked by Rep. Ryan Berger, R-Evanston, what Wyoming school districts need from the Legislature, Jeremy Smith, the business manager for Sheridan County School District No. 1, was unequivocal.
Sheridan County School District No. 1 is unable to pay competitive salaries to any of its staff, he said, while high housing costs mean that teachers can’t find a place to live on the district’s current salaries.
“We are under-resourcing every department in the state to hire the most effective and efficient people you can find, period,” Smith said. “Hold your nose and vote for it, but give salary increases of a substantial amount. You’re either going to do it yourself as policymakers or you’re going to be told to do it by other people.”
At the end of Smith’s testimony, Berger sought to draw a link between rising costs for school districts, Wyoming’s falling competitiveness and student success.
“Who hurts the most?” he asked
“Our children,” Smith replied.
Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, and other lawmakers on the Joint Education Committee were skeptical of some of the cost jumps, but they broadly agreed that the minutiae of the state’s analysis was less important than taking action.
“We’re starting to lose ground on these teachers, and I think that’s the biggest area that these school districts need help with,” Brown said.
This story was published on September 30, 2023.
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