School Choice Provides Real Taxpayer Savings

by Wyoming Liberty Staff

This fall Wyoming legislators are busy attending interim Committee meetings on a variety of subjects, all of which will be addressed in the cold winter months of February and March during the 2016 Budget Session. Current trends indicate long-term budget problems for Wyoming.

This April I wrote a blog entitled, The Urgent Case for School Choice in Wyoming. I argued that Wyoming legislators should bring school choice measures that work for Wyoming's tax structure in the next budget session for two reasons: first, because it is the right thing to do for parents statewide who understand the benefits real choice in education has for their children, and second because these measures have been proven to save states money.

In the Joint Interim Appropriations meeting this past June, Wyoming lawmakers were briefed on just how bad things have gotten in the spending accounts used to pay for public education. Given then current spending projections, these accounts would have an almost $270M shortfall for education spending and close to a $300M shortfall in capitol construction spending by the 2017-2018 budget cycle slated to be voted on this coming February.

These figures are subject to big changes because they are based on a number of built in assumptions made by the Legislative Service Office that are likely to shift in the coming months. One of those assumptions bases education spending on the current Wyoming Supreme Court mandated funding model (a model that was required after a long series of school district lawsuits against the state). This funding model, however, is presently in the middle of being recalibrated by a select committee, a process that will surely include automatic increases to education spending in the years to come. Which means, in the simplest terms possible, that school spending will increase simply because the model is being recalibrated, with the consequence that the projected shortfalls will increase based merely on the recalibration increases.

Last month the Joint Chairs of the Select Committee on School Facilities wrote a letter to the Management Council of the Legislature asking the committee to, "assign the study topic of possible revenue generating mechanisms to fully fund the School Foundation Program Account and related school capital construction needs through the School Capital Construction Account." (For those unfamiliar with legislative jargon, "revenue generating mechanisms" means tax increases.) Wyoming state education funding is already at national high of about $16,000 per year per student. Perhaps the Council should take a look at how other education venues manage excellent education outcomes at about half that amount, about $8,000 per year per student.

Wyoming policymakers should enact real education choice programs such as (but not limited to) opportunity scholarships, tax credit scholarships, revamp charter school laws to allow for separate charter school authorizers, allow families the freedom to homeschool with no government interference, allow families the freedom to participate in multi-family homeschooling and loosen the regulatory burdens on private schools as a way to create real money savings for taxpayers while improving student achievement levels instead of simply considering tax increases to fund the ever growing public school budget.

The reality is pretty simple for policymakers – if education spending continues to rise unchecked, there will not be enough taxes to levy in the state of Wyoming to cover the costs. It's time to start thinking outside of the tax and spend box and instead look to successful programs that demonstrate respect for parental choice, rising student achievement scores — and real education savings.