August 19, 2022 |
Funding for Wyoming schools is not keeping up with runaway inflation, says the Wyoming Education Association in a lawsuit filed Thursday in District Court in Cheyenne. The WEA’s 71-page legal complaint names the State of Wyoming as the Defendant.
The associations claims that the legislature has failed its constitutional duty to adjust school funding to keep up with inflation. As a result, the WEA contends, the current school funding model is unconstitutional because it is no longer “cost based.”
The WEA also claims that the legislature uses the “recalibration” process to develop a “cheaper model and possible ways to reduce funding” for schools.
Among other remedies, the lawsuit seeks higher salaries for teachers and administrators, as well as new funding for what it says are “missing educational components,” including security, school lunches and increased numbers of school counselors, social workers, nurses, tutors and other necessary support personnel.
The lawsuit also asks that the state establish a reliable funding source to build new schools.
At the beginning of the lawsuit, the WEA defines itself as a non-profit organization with more than 6,000 members who are educators and school support personnel, and therefore has standing with the court to file the lawsuit. The WEA was a plaintiff in previous school finance cases known as the Campbell cases, which are the foundation of the state’s school funding model.
Photo courtesy of Wyoming Education Association.
