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Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University of Wyoming Lab School bill approved in House committee, headed for floor
CHEYENNE — In another narrow vote, a bill to keep the University of Wyoming Lab School open passed through the House Education Committee. Co-sponsored by Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, Senate File 126, 'Establishment of a K-8 public lab school,' passed through committee in a 5-4 vote Wednesday. SF 126 comes after a set of 'unfortunate circumstances' between UW and Albany County School District 1, wherein the two educational entities could not agree on a memorandum of understanding governing school operations, according to Rothfuss. That disagreement led to a 'unilateral decision' by the UW trustees, and a subsequent later announcement by the ACSD1 school board, to close the UW Lab School at the end of this academic year, Rothfuss explained to his fellow lawmakers this session. He also acknowledged before the House committee Wednesday that neither the university nor ACSD1 is in support of SF 126. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie (2025) Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie 'The university wants to close the lab school, and they have made that clear,' he said. 'The district doesn't want to continue to work with the lab school. … They see it as a funding threat.' But teachers, students and staff at the lab school feel very differently — and feel unheard, after the UW trustees first made the decision to close it at a meeting in Sheridan, not Laramie, Rothfuss said. Representatives from both UW and ACSD1 testified against SF 126 Wednesday. Mike Smith, UW vice president for governmental affairs and community engagement, said that the decision to close the lab school was 'the epitome of a local control issue,' and that the lab school was 'a great school but serves no educational purpose' that the UW College of Education cannot fulfill without it. ACSD1 Superintendent Dr. John Goldhardt said that keeping the lab school open represents a financial threat to the district, continuing that the effort behind SF 126 was 'nontransparent' as ACSD1 trustees were not informed or involved. In comments limited due to time constraints while committees work to push legislation through in the final weeks of the session, former students at the lab school, parents and teachers pleaded with the committee Wednesday to pass SF 126. Julia Crossland, who identified herself as a young Wyoming teacher, said her life was deeply impacted by the UW Lab School. She graduated in 2023 with a degree in secondary social studies education, after student teaching in Platte County. 'I was lucky enough to be able to participate in a specially designed practicum experience (including time at the lab school),' Crossland said. 'Lab has allowed us to work hands-on with students, and try out different teaching methods.' UW Lab School art 1 Tori Brantner and Emily Mai work on their 4x4 projects in art class on Dec. 6, 2023, at the University of Wyoming Lab School. Bradley Rettler, who said his own two children attend the lab school, said it is an important tool for keeping students training to teach in Wyoming. Rettler, who is an associate professor of philosophy at UW, said when he asks freshmen majoring in education why they chose Laramie, one of their top reasons is the lab school. 'We want our teachers to have grown up in the state, to have gone to college in the state, and to stay in the state,' Rettler said. 'The lab school is one of the things that keeps them in the state.' Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas, said that supporting the UW Lab School is much like supporting rural schools in Wyoming, where parents express a deep need for a facility of choice. Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas (2025) Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas 'We fight for (rural schools). School districts usually want to close them, and parents get out there and fight,' Strock said. 'This is no different.' Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan, said that he was 'on the fence' about SF 126, but that the groundswell of support pushed him toward forwarding the bill out of committee. Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan (2025) Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan 'This is too large of an issue, with too much public input, and too many people paying attention, for this committee to shut it down at this moment,' Kelly said. 'This deserves its time in the House.' However, Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland; Rep. McKay Erickson, R-Afton; and Rep. Laurie Bratten, R-Sheridan, all said they could not support the bill. Erickson said he worried a state decision would impinge on local control, and Bratten said she had concerns over how the bill structured administration at the lab school. 'There is a lot of verbiage here that is pretty gray,' Bratten said. 'Fundamentally, I would like to see this as a charter. … It is such a strange hybrid.' Lawley pointed out that the lab school has not been performing for the last several years, and said that SF 126 would force UW and ACSD1 to operate a facility they no longer see as effective. 'Part of my concerns, it begins with the idea that the school hasn't been functioning for five years, basically, and so it is not like we are going to (pass SF 126) and all that is going to come back together,' Lawley said. Rothfuss responded that the school may have struggled for the last few years, but it has a 138-year history. 'Do we get involved? In my view, that is a legislative decision. We are electeds, and this is a decision that should be made by electeds,' Rothfuss said. 'Believe me, (the College of Education) thrived with the lab school for many years.' Kelly, Strock and Rep. Joel Guggenmos, R-Riverton; Rep. Daniel Singh, R-Cheyenne; and Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, voted for SF 126. Bratten, Erickson, Lawley and Rep. JD Williams, R-Lusk, voted against the bill.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University of Wyoming Lab School bill passes Senate, heads to the House
CHEYENNE — A bill to keep open the Lab School on the University of Wyoming campus has passed the Wyoming Senate. The Senate advanced Senate File 126, 'Establishment of a K-8 public lab school' on third reading Monday morning in a 18-12 vote. The Lab School has been a part of UW for 137 years, according to Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie. For the past 25 years, it has also been a part of Albany County School District 1. That transition took place when the state's school foundation program came into existence, meaning the district was the appropriate avenue for funding the school. Under a memorandum of understanding, the lab school existed for two decades as a joint venture between the university and ACSD1. Operating in a cooperative manner, the school carried out the university's mission to offer educational opportunities for its students and educators, while at the same time meeting the district's mission to educate its students. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie (2025) Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie 'But over the last five years, things broke down,' Rothfuss said during committee of the whole debate on the Senate floor on Thursday. ACSD1 was 'no longer interested in this school being a school of choice, as it has been for so many years, with its own independent curriculum, its own independent education program,' Rothfuss said. 'So they started to constrict and tighten down on how the school operated,' he said. 'At the same time, as a result of that, the university saw less return, because they didn't have an independent school. They had a school district school on campus, and so they started to pull away.' Last summer, both agencies announced they would cease operating the lab school in its current form and conditions on campus. 'We tried to get them to sit down, work it out, and return it back to its strong form of the past, where it was serving the educational mission of the state. ... But we were unsuccessful,' Rothfuss said. SF 126 would create, in statute, a K-8 public lab school that would promote 'developmentally appropriate instruction' while serving as a teacher educational institution. The school would continue as a coordinated effort between UW and ACSD1, operating as a school of choice, with its own governing board tasked with establishing school curriculum and teaching practices. The school would remain on the main UW campus. The lab school would also be required to make regular reports to the Joint Education Committee. 'That will provide an opportunity to elevate the mission of the lab school as a statewide institution,' Rothfuss said. To provide continuity for students currently enrolled in the lab school slated to close this spring, the school would open in the fall of 2025. School district and university officials testified against the bill in committee, but students and former teachers have advocated that the school stay open. On Thursday, Senate President Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, said he thought he'd known how he'd vote on the bill — indicating he may have voted no — but may be swayed by the school choice argument. 'Could this be thought of as actually school choice?' Salazar asked. Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper (2025) Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, said that it could. 'Yes, it is very close to a charter school, and it is (about) school of choice,' Scott, who sits on the Senate Education Committee and voted for SF 126 there, said. But fellow committee member Sen. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, questioned the measure, saying districts have a 'robust' pathway for establishing charter schools without legislative intervention. 'Those are our charter school laws,' Olsen said. 'Why, if this really is driven by the community, and the stakeholders involved — so set aside the school districts, set aside the university — if it's driven by parents and stakeholders, why should this not go through the traditional charter school pathway?' Scott replied that in the case of the UW Lab School, legislative oversight is necessary because the university is involved. Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie (2025) Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, said that he could not support SF 126, and was concerned the state would establish a precedent of overruling local decisions about school closures. 'You know, it breaks my heart every time a school closes,' Crum said, adding that in recent years, ACSD1 has closed nine schools, consolidated them into larger facilities. However, Crum said he'd received an estimated 206 emails, texts and phone calls in favor of SF 126, and 447 messages against it. 'I wonder if we are setting up a precedent that, every time we decide that we're going to close this school in this neighborhood that provides this special service, we are going to get to visit about that school (at the Legislature),' Crum said. 'We, as a Legislature, are going to step into local matters. 'The people who are in charge have said, no, they don't want this,' Crum added. But Scott said he was bothered that the arguments from both the university and the school district during committee meetings had 'nothing to do with the quality of education for the kids.' 'They were concerned about bureaucratic issues. Power. Money. We heard a lot about money,' Scott said. 'What I heard from the teachers and the kids convinced me that this was a wonderful school, and that it did an excellent job, as we would expect the choice school to do.' Schools like the lab school are 'precious,' Scott continued. 'Losing them because of a couple of bureaucracies that were caring only about their bureaucratic prerogatives, (and) simply chose to neglect the most important thing that was happening there, that appalled me.'
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University of Wyoming Lab School bill squeaks through committee
CHEYENNE — A bill to keep open the University of Wyoming Laboratory School, which exists on the UW campus and has operated since at least 2008 in partnership with Albany County School District 1, has narrowly passed 3-2 in the Senate Education Committee. Senate File 126, 'Establishment of a K-8 public lab school,' comes after a set of 'unfortunate circumstances' between UW and ACSD1. A rupture over how to operate the school, which had been guided by a memorandum of understanding between the two bodies, led to a 'unilateral decision' by the UW Trustees, and a subsequent later announcement by the ACSD1 school board, to close the lab school at the end of this academic year, bill co-sponsor Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, explained to the committee. But for over a century prior, the UW Lab school operated as a K-8 public school, offering practicum and observational experiences for pre-service teachers and other UW students. 'This had been a good working relationship governed by an MOU (between UW and ACSD1),' Rothfuss said. However, as priorities changed, the school began operating less as a lab school and more like a public school on campus, he continued. Ultimately, that led the university to announce closure of the school. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, on Senate floor Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, speaks during the morning session of the 68th Wyoming Legislature on Tuesday in the Senate chamber. 'The local delegation tried to reconcile, but that was unsuccessful,' Rothfuss said. Nearly everyone who testified in committee Wednesday agreed that it was a sad decision to close the UW Lab School, but school district officials questioned who would foot the bill to keep the school open, and whether the school could be reorganized and kept open in time for next fall. No one from the university or ACSD1 spoke in favor of SF 126 Wednesday. Tristan Green, chief financial officer for ACSD1 said that as written, the bill would require $2.5 million in district funding to keep the school open. 'You want this lab school to serve a state mission. If it's to serve a state mission, then why is one district being required to pay for it?' Green asked. 'Why not put it under the state, and allow the state to make this what it wants, not at the cost of one district?' David Hardesty, ACSD1 assistant superintendent, asked for additional clarification on resource allocation, because as it stands, the district has already made the 'very difficult decision' to close the lab school, bringing its students into existing ACSD1 schools. Decisions about the MOU governing the UW Lab School, he said, had at times forced the school district to 'funnel resources at a higher rate' into it than other schools, he continued. When faced with such challenges, the district ultimately decided to incorporate lab school students into its existing facilities. 'We do have the capacity to provide for those students in our current schools,' Hardesty said. Mike Smith, vice president for Governmental Affairs and Community Engagement at UW, told the committee that he wanted to address the idea that UW made a 'rash decision' to close the lab school. Rather than being a rash decision, he said the university determined that the lab school was not contributing to the university's mission. 'We felt it was time to move on,' Smith said, adding that the UW College of Education has over 200 locations across the state where it can provide other practicum experience. Nate Martin, an ACSD1 trustee, told the committee that many people in the community were upset when the university decided to close the lab school, and a 'Save the Lab School' movement did try to do just that. 'We tried to approach the university, and they have their reasons for not wanting to move forward. But in the intervening months, as the process continued, it became clear that whatever we did, whatever resulted, was not going to be the lab school anymore,' Martin said. Martin called SF 126 a 'Save the Lab School' bill, but said that simply can't be done. 'You can't save the lab school because you can't turn back the clock,' he said. ACSD1 Trustee Emily Siegel-Stanton said that she had concerns over how SF 126 would affect the district, and primarily, its funding. 'It's with grief in my heart that I provide this testimony, and ask this committee to vote no on this bill today,' Siegel-Stanton said. 'We're living in a new era regarding ... education funding.' However, former UW Lab School student Adian O'Connor told the committee that the school profoundly impacted her education, upbringing and commitment to Wyoming. 'The lab school provided an environment of compassionate educators, UW student teachers and peers, offering opportunities I wouldn't have had elsewhere,' she said. O'Connor continued that she has represented the lab school and state, federal and international capacities, from advocating for funding for the local Head Start to traveling Croatia to present at a National Youth Leadership Summit. 'My passion for service was fostered by both my Wyoming upbringing, and by the philosophy of the UW Lab School,' O'Connor said. Several former teachers also gave impassioned pleas to keep the school open. Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper (2025) Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, said tough decisions were made regarding the lab school, but that he would vote in favor of SF 126. 'It seems to me that the school has been very successful,' Scott said. 'Schools like that are precious, we need more of them. … It seems to me that what has happened is that both the university and the Albany County School District have found it bureaucratically inconvenient to work together. 'That's what has led to the problem, and the fact that they are destroying a good school doesn't seem to bother them,' Scott said. It will be difficult to reconstruct and restart the lab school, but Scott said he would vote for the bill. Rothfuss said that the concept of 'taking $2.5 million from the district is misleading,' because that funding is already being used by the lab school, and will continue if SF 126 is to pass. 'It's not taking, it's not diminishing the capacity of the district,' Rothfuss said. 'The reality is that this shift wouldn't change anything.' Further, the clearest way to create a loss to the district would be to separate and isolate the two, instead of operating in partnership, Rothfuss said. Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston (2025) Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, said that she was a student at UW and had good experiences in the lab school. However, because of concerns over decreased enrollment, she said she could not support SF 126. 'I have considered a lot about declining enrollment,' Schuler said. 'I do think that the local school boards need to make decisions on that.' Sen. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, said that he would not vote for the bill either, because the construct behind the lab school is problematic. 'There are two entities that do not want the school, and this bill tells those two entities, 'You will have the school',' Olsen said. 'Until all the platters are ready to play the game, I don't think it will work.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wyoming Senate approves $10 million enhanced oil recovery stimulus
CHEYENNE — The state Senate has approved a $10 million stimulus program for enhanced oil recovery projects in Wyoming. The measure will move on to the House of Representatives for debate in the second chamber. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, explained on Monday that Senate File 17, 'Carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery stimulus,' would mitigate a federal bias in the market toward permanent sequestration of carbon dioxide, or CO2, over use in an enhanced oil project. A current federal tax credit commonly called '45Q,' referring to carbon sequestration, is structured to favor permanent storage over enhanced oil projects, Rothfuss said. SF 17 aims to balance the playing field in Wyoming, he said. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, on Senate floor Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, speaks during the morning session of the 68th Wyoming Legislature on Tuesday in the Senate chamber. Carbon capture and sequestration technologies are 'intended to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, as well as other large industrial sources,' according to the federal Congressional Research Service. The federal 45Q tax credit for carbon sequestration is designed to incentivize investment in carbon capture and sequestration. 'There is an $85 (credit) for a ton of CO2 that is captured and sequestered in permanent geological sequestration. There is $60 of 45Q credit available if it is used for enhanced oil recovery,' Rothfuss said. That market bias is important, he continued, because 'we in the state of Wyoming want that CO2 to be available for use in enhanced oil recovery.' According to the U.S. Department of Energy, enhanced oil recovery is the practice of extracting oil from a well that has already gone through the primary and secondary stages of oil recovery. It can include a variety of methods, including gas injection, which involves injecting carbon dioxide, nitrogen or natural gas to push oil to a production well. 'That leads to tremendous yield in oil production for the state of Wyoming, but with the federal market bias in place, the market would push (owners) to permanent sequestration, and raise the price in such a way that it precludes enhanced oil recovery,' Rothfuss said. SF 17 would appropriate $10 million from the Legislative Stabilization Reserve Account (LSRA, also known as the state's 'rainy-day fund') to equalize that 45Q tax credit for the use of carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery in Wyoming. SF 17 would take severance tax money earned from the incremental production of enhanced oil recovery and reinvest it as a payment to CO2 owners, not to enhanced oil producers. Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Casper, said that there are 75 operational oil fields in operation that could benefit from the stimulus created by SF 17. Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, pointed out that the stimulus provided under SF 17 would be more like a loan than a grant, as the state's coffers will be paid back additional severance tax dollars following enhanced oil production. 'I don't think the average public out there realizes this is a loan program,' Landen said. Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep, agreed, saying that one field in Wyoming went from producing 17 barrels a day to 7,000 barrels a day using enhanced oil recovery. Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep (2025) Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep 'That 7,000 barrels a day is generating $10.5 million a year for the state of Wyoming in severance tax,' Cooper said, adding that though that project would be exempt from the stimulus, future enhanced oil projects would benefit. 'Those kinds of success stories are out there,' Cooper said. 'The return is not fast, but it is massive when it gets here. This is looking past next week. This is looking well into the future, and what it will do for the state of Wyoming into the next 20, 30 years.' A second-reading amendment brought by Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, stipulates that if the federal government makes changes to the 45Q tax credit, the state will not have to make up the difference at $15 per ton of CO2, and could adjust down accordingly. On Monday, the Senate voted down Senate File 18, 'Enhanced oil recovery-severance tax exemption,' which, rather than a stimulus that will be paid back, would have offered a 50% reduction in severance taxes on enhanced oil production. The Senate Minerals, Business & Economic Development Committee never intended for both bills to pass, Rothfuss said, adding that he favored SF 17 over SF 18.
