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I am alarmed at the free college rhetoric that hit the Wyoming news cycle over the past week. I know our post-secondary institutions are concerned about enrollment being down this fall and the financial hardship that will cause. But dangling the offer of free college with federal CARES money is not the right message or strategy for that money or our state. It is all too easy in contemporary politics for politicians to offer free everything, we can do better than that in Wyoming. A draft bill, proposed by Speaker Harshman, and supported by minor...
As the 2019 legislative session approaches, a major discussion topic in state government from 2018 moves to action. That topic is “government efficiency.” You’ve likely heard it mentioned on the campaign trail from candidates, in news coverage, and throughout your communities when discussing our state’s affairs. As a statewide elected official, this topic has been a top priority for me for the past four years. I thought I would take an opportunity to provide some insight into government efficiency as it relates to education. “Govern...
All this talk of economic diversity in Wyoming—it’s critical. And key to every conversation is education: How do we prepare and retain a workforce to keep our state strong for years to come? There is a bold answer that will lead more Wyoming students to higher education and prosperous career options: computer science. Computer science is not learning how to use a word processor or create a spreadsheet. Computer science is the foundation for every career of the future and includes programming, computational thinking, data science, networking, cy...
Having attended legislative committee meetings, educator trainings, and community events these past several weeks, I felt it was time to update you on school funding and another topic I have been working on since being elected: School funding: Pick up a Wyoming newspaper these days and chances are good that you will read about the dire education funding crisis. We face a cumulative shortfall of over $1.5 billion in our school operations account and roughly $500 million in our school construction account through the year 2022. The legislature is...
