Wyoming Says Judge's Order Gives Schools More Power Over Money Than Lawmakers Have

Wyoming’s executive branch has told the state’s highest court that if it doesn’t reverse a judge’s order expanding the legislature’s public school funding expectations to include a computer for every student and other provisions, it’ll amount to letting schools, not the legislature, determine school funding in Wyoming.

The Tuesday filing by the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office in its appeal of the Wyoming Education Association’s school-funding lawsuit is the latest in a three-year saga.

WEA sued in 2022. A handful of school districts joined the lawsuit.

A bench trial spanned weeks in the summer of 2024.

Then Laramie County District Court Judge Peter Froelicher ruled in February that the Wyoming Legislature isn’t adequately funding its schools, and he ordered lawmakers to do so.