With the closure of Jackson Elementary School officially announced with a vote Tuesday night, parents and concerned residents should be more motivated than ever to contact legislators and tell them to find ways of saving money without cutting funding to the state’s school districts.
Discussion of Jackson’s closure was prompted by funding cuts Sweetwater County School District No. 2 will receive in the next year. While some cuts are set, additional funding cuts are anticipated to take place during the next legislative session in January. Discussions about recalculating the state’s school funding model are set to take place and many legislators, unwilling to institute additional taxes for schools, are looking at the funding model as a place to make changes.
However, we believe cutting back on school funding will only have deleterious effects to not only SCSD No. 2, but districts throughout the Cowboy State. While local legislators have been supportive of the state’s schools, others have considered the state’s schools to be overfunded and offer more than is needed to prepare students for higher education or entry into the workforce. What many of those legislators don’t realize is the nature of education has changed in years between today and the day those legislators graduated from high school. Schools need to offer much more than the basic classes needed to fulfill a graduation requirement and a few sports teams. Schools should offer students a chance to explore different, educational avenues outside of the basics. The sort of courses and extracurriculars that can influence a student for a lifetime and help guide them to something greater. The goal should not be to prepare students for employment in Wyoming, but to prepare them for what demands may be placed on them in Salt Lake City, Denver or Los Angeles. Claiming students only need the basics to get them into college, vocational school or the work force is shortsighted and harmful to students throughout Wyoming.
There are some potential solutions, including diverting funds that would go into the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund towards education.
Wyoming offers its school students great opportunities, but those opportunities would dry up once funding is reduced. Aside from the employees of the state’s school districts, the only people impacted by any decision to reduce funding would be the students. Those students are the future of Wyoming.
Limiting students’ educational opportunities limits the state’s future.
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