A major expansion to Wyoming
early-childhood education programs died at the hands of state lawmakers
in Cheyenne last week, a victim of a fast-paced budget session that
requires overwhelming support before nonbudget bills can be considered.
House Bill 26 would have created a $1 million grant program to improve early-childhood programs statewide. The bill would have encouraged comprehensive pre-K programs with an extra $500,000 to the Wyoming Department of Education during the next three years.
It failed Wednesday in the House, eight votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for nonbudget bills to be debated in this budget session.
The early-childhood initiative was not alone in its quick defeat.
Among the other education initiatives that died were proposals to reverse the Common Core State Standards in Wyoming, to make kindergarten mandatory for all Wyoming students and to require the Legislature's approval before educational standards are adopted.
Two bills seeking opposite approaches to settling an ongoing saga between lawmakers and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill also failed.
One bill suggested eliminating the governor-appointed director of the Wyoming Department of Education, a position created by the controversial law that removed Hill from power last year. The other proposed a constitutional amendment to do away with the elected state superintendent altogether.
Still on the table for lawmakers are a proposal to tighten protections on student data, bills to expand the state's Hathaway student scholarship program and an initiative that could start the process of rolling back Common Core State Standards in Wyoming.
Common Core bills
Some Wyoming lawmakers say their constituents would prefer educational standards to be locally grown, instead of shared between states like the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
Several brought bills to start rolling back the standards, which Wyoming adopted in math and language arts in 2012.
A bill from Rep. Tom Reeder, R-Casper, would create a committee to potentially scrap the Common Core standards this year. His bill would prohibit Wyoming from participating in any multi-state group creating tests to measure student progress in the new standards. It would mandate dozens of public hearings before new state standards could be adopted.
Wyoming joined such a testing group, called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, in 2010.
"When standardized testing with questionable content aligned with questionable standards drives the curriculum, teaching method and teacher evaluations, you have created a high-stakes system that puts unreasonable pressure on children and teachers," Reeder wrote in an email to the Star-Tribune.
The Wyoming Curriculum Directors Association endorses the Common Core standards, saying the national standards bring opportunities for collaboration and comparability like never before. The association, made up of school district superintendents and curriculum directors from around the state, also supports using a statewide test from SBAC or another multi-state group.
Reeder's bill will be discussed today by the House Education Committee.
State lawmakers may have a chance to weigh in on new educational standards before they're adopted under a bill from Rep. Matt Teeters, R-Lingle, that passed introduction in the House last week.
A more outright anti-Common Core proposal from Rep. Allen Jaggi, R-Lyman, would have reversed the standards altogether. Jaggi's bill failed the House 25-35 on Friday.
Uneasiness over the Common Core State Standards has grown in Wyoming since the state Board of Education adopted the standards, now shared by 45 states and the District of Columbia, in 2012.
Though the common standards were developed by a group of states, they have come under fire as a federal initiative in part because states that adopted the standards were looked upon more favorably when applying for federal Race to the Top funds.
Wyoming applied for money from that program but did not receive any.
House Bill 26 would have created a $1 million grant program to improve early-childhood programs statewide. The bill would have encouraged comprehensive pre-K programs with an extra $500,000 to the Wyoming Department of Education during the next three years.
It failed Wednesday in the House, eight votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for nonbudget bills to be debated in this budget session.
The early-childhood initiative was not alone in its quick defeat.
Among the other education initiatives that died were proposals to reverse the Common Core State Standards in Wyoming, to make kindergarten mandatory for all Wyoming students and to require the Legislature's approval before educational standards are adopted.
Two bills seeking opposite approaches to settling an ongoing saga between lawmakers and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill also failed.
One bill suggested eliminating the governor-appointed director of the Wyoming Department of Education, a position created by the controversial law that removed Hill from power last year. The other proposed a constitutional amendment to do away with the elected state superintendent altogether.
Still on the table for lawmakers are a proposal to tighten protections on student data, bills to expand the state's Hathaway student scholarship program and an initiative that could start the process of rolling back Common Core State Standards in Wyoming.
Common Core bills
Some Wyoming lawmakers say their constituents would prefer educational standards to be locally grown, instead of shared between states like the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
Several brought bills to start rolling back the standards, which Wyoming adopted in math and language arts in 2012.
A bill from Rep. Tom Reeder, R-Casper, would create a committee to potentially scrap the Common Core standards this year. His bill would prohibit Wyoming from participating in any multi-state group creating tests to measure student progress in the new standards. It would mandate dozens of public hearings before new state standards could be adopted.
Wyoming joined such a testing group, called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, in 2010.
"When standardized testing with questionable content aligned with questionable standards drives the curriculum, teaching method and teacher evaluations, you have created a high-stakes system that puts unreasonable pressure on children and teachers," Reeder wrote in an email to the Star-Tribune.
The Wyoming Curriculum Directors Association endorses the Common Core standards, saying the national standards bring opportunities for collaboration and comparability like never before. The association, made up of school district superintendents and curriculum directors from around the state, also supports using a statewide test from SBAC or another multi-state group.
Reeder's bill will be discussed today by the House Education Committee.
State lawmakers may have a chance to weigh in on new educational standards before they're adopted under a bill from Rep. Matt Teeters, R-Lingle, that passed introduction in the House last week.
A more outright anti-Common Core proposal from Rep. Allen Jaggi, R-Lyman, would have reversed the standards altogether. Jaggi's bill failed the House 25-35 on Friday.
Uneasiness over the Common Core State Standards has grown in Wyoming since the state Board of Education adopted the standards, now shared by 45 states and the District of Columbia, in 2012.
Though the common standards were developed by a group of states, they have come under fire as a federal initiative in part because states that adopted the standards were looked upon more favorably when applying for federal Race to the Top funds.
Wyoming applied for money from that program but did not receive any.
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