The last thing we should cut is education

What are we doing? What ARE we doing, folks?

Are we truly going to watch as certain members of the Wyoming Legislature tear down our schools and the university while also doing damage to other institutions and local government?

The self-named Freedom Caucus, perhaps more aptly named the No to Everything Caucus, appears to be hell bent on radially altering Wyoming as we know it through draconian cuts to education and cuts that are making it increasingly difficult for local government at the county and local level to carry out their mission.

A very wise and very conservative local legislator once told us, “You can’t save your way to prosperity,” or words to that effect, the point being that, even in a conservative government, which Wyoming has been operated under for decades, you sometimes have to spend money to make money.

For the most part, Wyoming has carefully carried out that method of governance, wisely spending funds on building infrastructure for communities through the State Loan and Investment Board and other programs, on developing and protecting Wyoming’s water resources, on ensuring that our state has good highways, on appropriations for our counties, cities and towns so that they can function and provide services and on education from constructing new and better buildings to teachers and programs.

What good is the mantra “Government closest to the people is the best government” unless it can function? Doesn’t conservative government reward local control?

It feels good to not have to pay property taxes in the amount we did a couple of years ago, but realize that, while we save 50 or 75 bucks a year on our homes, the cumulative effect on local government is damaging, which Big Horn County officials have been telling area legislators in a series of face-to-face meetings, conservative Republican county officials, by the way.

And the Freedom Caucus wants to cut even more, including the Wyoming Business Council. The Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee voted recently to defund the Business Council. Perhaps we’d be better off as a bedroom community for Colorado, Montana and Utah.

And then there’s education. We would argue that education is the most valuable institution in our wonderful state, from our proud university to your child’s kindergarten classroom and everything in between.

Think of your own town. In almost every community, the schools are at the center of daily life, and programs from athletics to music to FFA enrich our lives and bind us together like nothing else can. Think of our time at concerts, ballgames, plays and other events. 

Our teachers and coaches are almost universally highly respected and, of course, play huge roles in the development of our children. Wyoming has prided itself for having a top-quality public education system. And legislators want to cut this back? It’s insane.

Likewise, our university and our community colleges are vital to the future of Wyoming. We already export our children to other states at an alarming rate – How many of us have children with professional jobs living out of state? – and now the Legislature wants to slash $40 million from the University of Wyoming? How did they come up with that nice, round number? Pull it out of a hat?

The Wyoming Constitution declares: “The legislature shall suitably encourage means and agencies calculated to advance the sciences and liberal arts.” Further, the Constitution calls for “the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction” and “a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may require.”

As for funding the university, the Constitution states, “In order that the instruction furnished may be as nearly free as possible, any amount in addition to the income from its grants of lands and other sources above mentioned, necessary to its support and maintenance in a condition of full efficiency shall be raised by taxation or otherwise.”

This is our Constitution, the Wyoming Constitution. If we slash the university’s budget, valuable programs will be lost, proud athletic programs that link us together will be severely damaged and tuition will surely skyrocket – against the Wyoming Constitution.

We strongly believe in fiscal conservatism and careful spending, and that’s how Wyoming has operated for years. It’s not like we’re California or Massachusetts, far from it.

The truth is: Wyoming is not facing a fiscal cliff. The state has billions of dollars in savings and strong revenue from the oil, gas and mineral industries. The state budget does not operate in the red like Washington and, in fact, under the state Constitution, the biennial budget must be balanced. And contrary to popular rhetoric, government has not grown in Wyoming. By and large, Wyoming is spending roughly the same dollars it did years ago, while operating costs have gone up.

Much of this flows down from a presidential administration that has set out to eliminate many of the institutions and programs our nation has been known for and depended on, from health and human services and supplemental nutrition assistance to education and research in science and medicine.

And now it’s coming to us at the state and local level. Are we going to allow it? Do we want to be the pride of the Rocky Mountains or more like Mississippi or Louisiana.

You know the answer. Write to or call your legislators – Rep. Dalton Banks and Sen. Dan Laursen in our area. Write to all of the legislators, easily done through the Wyoming Legislature website.

Your voice can, and must, be heard.