Wyoming

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Good morning. Tonight the candidates for state superintendent face off on Wyoming PBS, Gov. Gordon is pressing voters to reject Prop 1, and the State Board of Education meets virtually to advance new social studies standards. Meanwhile, school-board contests are heating up in Sweetwater County and the national school-choice debate is getting a new federal twist. Here's what matters. Tonight: Cordova and Harshman Debate at 8 p.m. on Wyoming

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Wyoming's three candidates for governor — Republican Eric Barlow, Constitution Party candidate Rebecca Bextel, and Democrat Kenneth Casner — debated Wednesday night at Riverton High School in a Wyoming PBS forum. With twenty days until Election Day, here is where they stand on the issues facing Wyoming's schools. A note on sourcing: the Oct 14 Wyoming PBS debate did not produce a transcript, but a morning-after recap (wyomingnews.com, publi

Listen to the podcast episode (MP3) Alex and Jordan dig into the screen-time reckoning in K-12 education: bell-to-bell phone policies, one-to-one devices, and what Wyoming boards can actually do about it. About three and a half minutes. Read the companion article: https://www.schoolboardnews.org/post/the-screen-time-reckoning-what-wyoming-school-boards-should-know Know the issue before the meeting starts — School Board News delivers a five-minute Wyoming education briefing fo

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) The Wyoming State Board of Education meets virtually this Thursday, October 15, and the proposed 2026 Social Studies Standards are expected to take center stage. The Wyoming Department of Education is slated to present the informal public input it collected this summer and fall on the draft standards — the next milestone in a review that began when a 24-member committee started drafting in January and continued through public surveys and th

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Here is what national education news is talking about today — and why it matters in Wyoming. SCHOOL CHOICE KEEPS CLIMBING THE FEDERAL AGENDA A new federal tax-credit scholarship program is pushing public schools to set up systems to charge for expanded services — a practical headache for district finance offices. Meanwhile, the opt-in map is taking shape, with states deciding one by one whether to participate. Wyoming already has its own sk

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Schools across the country are in the middle of a screen-time reckoning — and Wyoming is not exempt from it. THE PHONE QUESTION The most visible front is the cell phone. Districts nationwide are moving toward bell-to-bell phone restrictions, and school boards are the ones making the call. The debate splits two ways: phones as a discipline and distraction problem versus phones as a symptom of a bigger question about what the school day shoul

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Attendance is recovering. After years of pandemic-era chronic absenteeism, the numbers are falling back toward normal — and that is worth celebrating. But Wyoming boards should not mistake presence for engagement. A student can show up every day and still be checked out: mentally absent, emotionally withdrawn, avoiding something they have not named. None of that shows up on an attendance report. THE EARLY SIGNS COME BEFORE THE ABSENCES Dise

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Today's EdWeek Update looks outward and lands close to home. California is rethinking how it tests its youngest learners. A superintendent is answering school choice by building microschools instead of fighting it. And a new survey says students are warming to non- degree pathways faster than their counselors can keep up. None of these stories is about Wyoming directly — but every one of them touches a decision Wyoming boards are making rig

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Wyoming's general election shifts into its highest gear this week. Wyoming PBS hosts four debates over two nights at the Riverton High School Auditorium — starting tonight at 7 PM with the governor's race — and the one that matters most to School Board News readers lands Thursday at 8 PM: a 30-minute debate between the two candidates for state superintendent of public instruction, Democrat Ana Cordova and Republican Steve Harshman. THE LINE

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Three weeks from Election Day, school governance is on the ballot across Wyoming. Albany County voters will reshape most of their school board, the property-tax fight has pulled in the community colleges, and the race for superintendent of public instruction is now a two-way contest — with both candidates opposed to school vouchers. Here is what matters this morning, in about five minutes. Six of nine Albany County school board seats are on

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Morning, Wyoming. Election Day is 23 days out, and the biggest fight on the ballot isn't for an office — it's over the property-tax dollars that fund schools, colleges and counties. 1. The ballot: Proposition 1 turns property taxes into education's election fight. The People's Initiative to Limit Property Tax — Proposition 1 — would exempt 50% of a primary residence's assessed value from property taxation, and it is now the centerpiece of t

Listen to the podcast version (MP3) Wyoming's school-funding argument has entered a new phase. In a divided September 17 decision, the Wyoming Supreme Court said the state's method for funding teacher pay had fallen short of its constitutional duty — while also narrowing a lower court order that would have required additional spending in several other areas. Case: State of Wyoming v. Wyoming Education Association, 2026 WY 99. The decision is both a victory and a constraint fo