{"id":8392,"date":"2025-03-06T15:28:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T15:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/?p=8392"},"modified":"2025-03-06T15:28:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T15:28:23","slug":"wyoming-becomes-15th-state-to-enact-universal-school-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/2025\/03\/06\/wyoming-becomes-15th-state-to-enact-universal-school-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyoming Becomes 15th State to Enact Universal School Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Tuesday, Wyoming became the 15th\u00a0state to enact universal school choice into law with Gov. Mark Gordon\u2019s signature on the\u00a0Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cowboy State joins a rapidly growing group of states that have passed laws giving all (or nearly all) families statewide choice concerning their children\u2019s kindergarten through twelfth-grade education. Those states are<\/a> Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The act grants families who choose to participate with an education savings account of $7,000<\/a> per student per year to allocate toward approved K-12 educational expenses. Education savings accounts with universal eligibility are the gold standard of school choice programs due to the flexibility they provide parents to select the best learning avenues for their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The market forces of competition will drive quality, spur innovation, and decrease costs, which are foundational for achieving the governor\u2019s goal of a world-class education system in Wyoming.<\/p>Keri D. Ingraham<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It also expands eligibility of the state\u2019s existing pre-kindergarten education savings account program from parents with a maximum income of 150 percent of the federal poverty line to up to 250<\/a> percent. The amount provided to qualifying parents is $7,000<\/a>. According to Gov. Gordon<\/a>, \u201cearly education builds a very strong foundation. It\u2019s important that when kids get to kindergarten, they have the grounding that\u2019s necessary to be able to move forward, thrive and really do well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wyoming Speaker of the House Ocean Andrew is a defender of education freedom and under his leadership the bill promptly passed the House by a 39-21<\/a> vote on Jan. 29. It then headed to the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mid-February, President Trump applauded the leadership of Senate President Bo Biteman and\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0every state senator to vote in favor of the bill. On Feb. 19, the Senate passed the bill with a vote of\u00a020-11<\/a>. As part of the Wyoming legislative process, a Joint Conference Committee was tasked to successfully negotiate the policy differences between the Senate and House, which was completed on Feb. 27. The following day, the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate both\u00a0signed the bill<\/a>, sending it to Gov. Gordon for signature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wyoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, who was voted into office in 2022, has been instrumental in providing a strategic plan for the state\u2019s education system. She is a proponent of school choice and understands that it is a rising tide that lifts all boats. Of her six key initiative areas<\/a> for education reform in Wyoming, \u201cparental empowerment\u201d are the first two words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs an economist, I know that greater choices lead to greater outcomes. I am an ardent supporter of universal school choice because even parents in the most rural corners of Wyoming should have the opportunity to determine the best education for their child,\u201d Degenfelder told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hats off to Wyoming leaders for embracing the innovative educational approach of a free market K-12 education landscape by enacting universal school choice. The market forces of competition will drive quality, spur innovation, and decrease costs, which are foundational for achieving the governor\u2019s goal of a world-class education system in Wyoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, Wyoming became the 15th\u00a0state to enact universal school choice into law with Gov. Mark Gordon\u2019s signature on the\u00a0Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act. The Cowboy State joins a rapidly growing group of states that have passed laws giving all (or nearly all) families statewide choice concerning their children\u2019s kindergarten through twelfth-grade education. Those states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia. The act grants families who choose to participate with an education savings account of $7,000 per student per year to allocate toward approved K-12 educational expenses. Education savings accounts with universal eligibility are the gold standard of school choice programs due to the flexibility they provide parents to select the best learning Read More ›<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":8396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2594,2457,591,1371,78,205,1445,1294,2589,2595,2593,593,74,2590,1150,1956],"coauthors":[1073],"class_list":["post-8392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-choice","tag-bo-biteman","tag-donald-trump","tag-education-freedom","tag-education-savings-account","tag-k-12","tag-k-12-education","tag-keri-d-ingraham","tag-keri-ingraham","tag-mark-gordon","tag-megan-degenfelder","tag-ocean-andrew","tag-parental-empowerment","tag-school-choice","tag-steamboat-legacy-scholarship-act","tag-universal-school-choice","tag-wyoming"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Keri D. Ingraham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8392"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8392"}],"wp:action-assign-author":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/8392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}