WYOMING

Constitutional Clauses/Language

 “The Legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction, embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade.” Wyo. Const. art. 7, s. 1.

“The legislature shall make such further provisions by taxation or otherwise, as with the income arising from the general school fund will create and maintain a thorough and efficient system of public schools, adequate to the proper instruction of all [school age] youth of the state. . .” Wyo. Const. art. 7, s. 9. 

Major Court Decision: Washakie County Sch. Dist. No. One v. Herschler, 606 P.2d 310 (Wyo. 1980).

Result: Financing System Overturned

Summary: The court states that education is a fundamental right.  It also decided that the state should strive for equal school expenditures in each school district, but some variance is acceptable.

Key Quotes:

“In the light of the emphasis which the Wyoming Constitution places on education, there is no room for any conclusion but that education for the children of Wyoming is a matter of fundamental interest.”  Id. at 333.

“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”  Id. at 334 (quoting Brown v. Board of Education). 

“Money for school district operations, except for the foundation fund operation and perhaps some federal funds, is not distributed upon the basis of need for quality education. Equality of dollar input is manageable. There is no other viable criterion or test that the appellees show to exist, and our exploration of the subject has resulted only in discovery of a quagmire of speculation, so slippery that it evades any secure grasp for judicial decision making. It is nothing more than an illusion to believe that the extensive disparity in financial resources does not relate directly to quality of education.”  Id.

“We only express the constitutional standard and hold that whatever system is adopted by the legislature, it must not create a level of spending which is a function of wealth other than the wealth of the state as a whole... we wish to make clear that we are not suggesting that each school district receive exactly the same number of dollars per pupil as every other school district. We understand that there are special problems and amounts may be distributed in a mode similar to the foundation fund which takes into consideration various balancing factors.”  Id. at 336.