Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1472975
27 This August, the Wyoming State Loans and Investment Board (SLIB) will evaluate applications for two charter schools. Sister schools, Wyoming Classical Academy and Cheyenne Classical Academy, are applying to open in Fall 2023. Their applications come after a law passed last year, expanding authority for approving charter school applications from local school boards to the SLIB. Currently, Wyoming is home to five charter schools. Under the new 2021 legislation, the state may now grant charters to three additional schools each year. After Superintendent Jillian Balow left her office in January of this year to assume the same role in Virginia, Governor Gordon appointed Brian Schroeder to serve out the remainder of Balow's current term. Prior to being appointed, Schroeder was the head of a private Christian school in Cody. In May, Superintendent Schroeder attended an event supporting the Cheyenne Classical Academy. During this event, the Cheyenne Tribune-Eagle reports that he condemned modern public schools as a "toxic environment," though he later clarified that he was not referring to Wyoming public schools but others across the nation. "The evangelists of secularism saw two institutions, government and education, said Schroeder during this event, "as the perfect twin vehicles through which they would remake society in their image. Once more, through this quiet revolution, they anticipated the American people would be sleeping at the wheel, and by the time they woke up, it would be too late." Schroeder said the centralization of our traditional public school system had shifted public schools from community schools to government schools. He sees this as a progressive, nationalized approach, chipping away at local authority. The Wyoming constitution expressly prohibits directing education dollars to "any person, corporation or community not under the absolute control of the state, nor to any denominational or sectarian institution or association." In 2012, a bill seeking to amend the constitution to eliminate this restriction on education funding failed to be introduced. Many bills drafted since then have been blind to the unconstitutionality of expanding charter schools or instituting voucher programs in Wyoming. WEA believes charter schools come with unintended consequences that pose a threat to Wyoming students. First, charter school supporters point to theoretical savings the state would see in per-student costs for education because charter schools would stoke "free market competition." However, our state is sparsely populated. Because of our low population density, in Wyoming—despite any "competition"—education will always come at a high cost-per-pupil relative to states with more urban areas and denser populations. Allowing dollars to follow students out of our public education system into charter schools will only siphon money out of our already-underfunded system, to the detriment of our public schools' students, staff, programs, and facilities. Then, there's the rampant misinformation about charter school students academically outperforming public school students. What we've learned from states leading the way in school choice is that in many cases, families opting to send their students to a charter school have a strong support system in place for that student at home. The single greatest predictor of student outcomes is a highly-qualified educator guiding their education. However, we know that family engagement and home life play an integral role in student success. Nate Martin, a school board member in Albany County School District #1, recently told WyoFile that he questions the self-selecting nature of charter school attendance, saying, "[Charter schools] are necessarily populated by students who have parents who are actively engaged in their education. I think the research clearly bears out that if you mix in students from more difficult backgrounds with students who are higher performing, it has a tendency to raise all boats." Additionally, it's essential to remember that— particularly in our small, rural towns—the public school is the heart of the community. "I find it ironic that this is called the 'school choice' movement," says WEA President Grady Hutcherson of calls to open more charter schools in Wyoming, "because, for so many of our students, our traditional, existing public schools are the choice. Because of location, socioeconomic status, or circumstance, public school is their one and only choice. And it is a choice that matters: For too many students, their public school is their main—or even their only—source of education, nutrition, counseling, health services, socialization, and even safety. How can anyone be willing to consider policy options that erode and jeopardize our public schools when they are the heart of our communities and the lifeline for our children?" Preventing charter schools from eating away at our existing public schools' resources doesn't mean we are sleeping at the wheel. It means we are buckling our students' seat belts before driving down the highway toward their future. Sleeping at the Wheel What's Wrong With Wyoming's School Choice Movement? By: Amanda Turner ... they anticipated the American people would be sleeping at the wheel, and by the time they woke up, it would be too late.