Policy Update: Wyoming: Facing a Test

Vital Statistics
49	Public school districts
408	Public schools
97,000	K-12 enrollment
11%	Minority students
13%	Children in poverty
11.8%	Students with disabilities
$615.0 million	Annual K-12 expenditures (all revenue sources)

This year, Wyoming will issue its first assessment geared to the standards. The new Wyoming Comprehensive Assessment System, or WYCAS, will test all 4th, 8th, and 11th grade public school students statewide in reading, writing, and math beginning this spring, with results published in the fall. No date has been set for testing in social studies and science.

"I support raising the bar," says Jean Hayeck, the president of the Wyoming Education Association. Districts could use the test results to monitor their progress over the years, she adds.

But she says most educators are against the idea of using scores for ranking. "It is not an appropriate use and not conducive to education reform."

Jerry Maurer, the executive director of the Wyoming School Boards Association, agrees, but doesn't believe educators can do anything to stop the comparison of districts. "If we were using assessment to see what young people are learning, then I would support [the legislators]," he says. "But I don't think it will be."

But many Wyoming lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Greg Phillips, see the state assessment as a way to ensure accountability.

"It's only fair to see what you're getting for your money," says Phillips, who argues that every district should be ranked by student performance. "Rather than fighting, I wish educators would get on board."

School finance is another big issue the state has been struggling with. A 1995 ruling by the state supreme court found the school finance system unconstitutional because it created inequities between districts in per-student funding. A new system was finally adopted in 1997, but it too has come under fire. As a result, 31 of the state's 49 school districts, along with the WEA, have filed suit against the state.

"The universal opinion that everyone can agree on is that the reform legislation doesn't meet the supreme court mandate," says Ford Bussart, a lawyer representing four of the larger districts in the suit. The schools are not being funded at an adequate level, he says, and the reason is "the money is simply not there."

Districts are initially given a set amount of money for every student--$5,982 per elementary pupil, $6,092 per middle school student, and $6,572 per high school student. The districts are then provided additional sums for special education, transportation, and several other purposes, explains Scott Badley, the senior legislative analyst for the state's Legislative Service Office.

"Smaller school districts are getting little additional funding, while some larger districts are seeing as much as 15 percent increases in their revenues," he says.

The plaintiffs in the current finance suit are pushing for a system that would have the state define a high-quality education and then pay for it, says Hayeck of the wea, a National Education Association affiliate.

"The state has fallen far short of taking care of the majority of problems we face," she contends.

The Wyoming Supreme Court was set to meet last summer to try to resolve the issue, but it decided to delay the hearing until after the 1999 legislative session.

The legislature will have its hands full when it returns this month. Capital construction, one part of the school finance debate, is expected to be a leading source of contention. A state district court judge has mandated that lawmakers create a capital-construction funding system by July.

Lawmakers also will consider reports from the state education department on the testing system, technology, special education, transportation, professional development, and other areas addressed by the state high court's finance decision.

"The courts took two years to make a decision, and then gave us six months to try and solve the problem," says Rep. James C. Hageman, the Republican chairman of the House education committee.

He expects the legislature to come up with the money needed to fulfill the court's 1995 mandate. "We'll spend what we need to, to do it," Hageman says.

This school year, the state will also launch a technology initiative. In the first phase of what is to be a five-year plan, the legislature has set aside $11 million to wire schools, buy computers, and provide staff training. Education officials hope to have all the schools in the state wired to the Internet by this spring.