Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1205100
14 | WEAnews WE A LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS The 2020 Budget Session: Priorities and Opportunities The diverse group of education stakeholders in Wyoming recognize that the success of Wyoming's students has significant and direct impacts on the potential overall success of the state. As dedicated education advocates, the Wyoming Education Association's government relations staff recognize the importance of being able to inform and lobby legislators on behalf of WEA members by utilizing data-driven policy analysis and best practices from around the United States. Ensuring that every student has an equitable and adequate education and that teachers, administrators, and staff are satisfactorily compensated are of the utmost priority to the Wyoming Education Association's legislative advocacy team. The upcoming 2020 Budget Session is presenting potential challenges to what is and has been a highly equitable and effective education system. 2020 Legislative Priorities: Educational Funding: A Brief Overview and Why it's Important: Wyoming's economy has been highly dependent on the revenues generated from the mineral extraction industry. This dependence has resulted in substantial revenue shortfalls. As of the Fiscal year 2020, fully funding education in Wyoming will cost about $1.6 billion. Wyoming is not unlike most other states in the U.S. in that education accounts for a significant portion of the state's expenditures. However, where Wyoming differs is that, per the state's constitution, education is a fundamental right guaranteed to all residents. Not only is education a fundamental right in the state, but it is also the obligation of the Legislature to fund education despite a lack of revenue. Wyoming's constitution mandates that at no time is education to be funded below the mandatory minimum. The state faces roughly a $250 million biennium revenue shortfall to fund education given current projections. External Cost Adjustment (ECA): Wages, Inflation and High-Quality Educators The Wyoming constitution mandates that an external cost adjustment is applied to the education funding model. The ECA is essentially an adjustment to account for inflation. Governor Gordon has recommended, and the Joint Appropriations Committee has approved, an ECA of $19 million per year, each year, through the biennium. This amount represents a sufficient external cost adjustment to stay in keeping with constitutionally-mandated education funding requirements; but, it is the absolute bare minimum allocation satisfying the constitutional mandate. Recalibration: The Basket of Goods and How They're Provided As part of a Wyoming Supreme Court's decision directing the Legislature to adequately and equitably fund Wyoming public education, the Legislature is required to evaluate the quality of education being offered to Wyoming K-12 students about every five years. This evaluation establishes what elements are necessary for high-quality education, and the Legislature is then constitutionally required to adequately fund all of the essential components to ensure that Wyoming students continue to receive a high-quality education. This process of identifying necessary components and their current cost is called "recalibration." The Legislature approved a recalibration study in 2005, 2010, and 2015. An additional recalibration By: Tate Mullen