Agenda 2024: K-12 education in Wyoming is at a pivotal moment | Opinion

That’s what parents want, too, of course. Which is why it’s discouraging to see teachers and parents pitted against one another, instead of engaged in the type of partnership that used to be prevalent before controversies surfaced with angry parents, interest groups and political factions facing off over anti-public-school rhetoric that’s become common in our country.

Back in the “good old days,” most parents trusted teachers to provide the education their children needed. They dropped their kids off at the schoolhouse door or put them on a yellow bus, confident that if the youngster paid attention, did their homework and studied for exams, they would develop the firm foundation needed for adulthood.

These days, far too often, parents voice concerns that the system is effectively trying to indoctrinate their kids with instruction that goes against their beliefs. It can’t be their child’s fault, so they often blame “the system” or individual teachers when their kids fail to behave appropriately, show up to class, turn in homework on time or study enough to pass a test.

To which we say: Pause. Take a deep breath.

Stop assuming the worst and look deeper. In any profession, there are outliers, but the vast majority of teachers are highly trained, dedicated professionals who work hard under increasingly difficult circumstances and administrative workload. Ask them about the subjects they are required to teach and how they go about doing that. Ask them what you can do to help make their extremely challenging jobs easier while ensuring student success.

We would guess there are very few educators in Wyoming who will turn away a parent volunteer or decline to meet with a parent who wants more insight into their instructional program.

In a wide-ranging, 90-minute conversation with key education stakeholders (last week), the issue of teacher satisfaction, and the problem of teacher recruitment and retention, came up again and again as one of the biggest challenges facing K-12 education in the state. There also are concerns about education funding, parental rights, curriculum choice, administrative overburden and more, and we’ll address each of them below. But first, a bit more about the challenges facing teachers.

The teachers on our panel said there are many reasons for widespread burnout among K-12 educators these days. They include repercussions from COVID, too many students in each classroom, no one-on-one time with students, more frequent behavioral issues, administrative overburden and the damaging effects of political rhetoric.

Some of those denigrating public school teachers as a class think they have it easy — after all, they get summers off, right? But reasonable critics shouldn’t be basing their opinions on what they see on their favorite television news channel, YouTube and social media.

In his award-winning podcast “Those who can’t teach … ANYMORE,” Charles Fournier, now an English instructor at Laramie County Community College, acknowledges that teachers have faced a lack of respect since the start of the industrial revolution. During a phone conversation (last week), Mr. Fournier agreed with the teachers on our panel, who said if we’re going to retain quality teachers and encourage young people to go into the profession, we need a cultural shift.

While most people say they support the teaching profession, it’s common to hear talk about a single bad experience they had with one of their own teachers or a teacher their child had, and that experience colors their conversations about teachers overall.

While it’s true that many teachers are a little left of center politically, one likely reason is that the teaching profession attracts compassionate people, aware of social and emotional impacts on students. The vast majority avoid any appearance of trying to indoctrinate kids, but they may become the “bad guys” when children tell them about their emotional struggles, challenges at home and other problems, which then must be addressed with parents.

The Wyoming Legislature made some of those situations even more challenging by increasing teachers’ administrative burden with a parental rights bill earlier this year. That forced the state’s 48 school districts to approve policies by July 1 governing when and under what circumstances parents will be notified of a change in their child’s health.

On the surface, this doesn’t sound like a bad idea. But as Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, related to the group, it has created “don’t ask, don’t tell Band-Aids” — the concern being that even providing a child with a bandage without notifying a parent could be a violation that leads to repercussions.

As Mr. Brown said, 98% or more of teachers just want to teach. They’re not activists, they don’t want to be weighed down by burdensome regulations, and they want to be trusted to do what’s in the best interest of the young people in their care, just as they would their own kids. Can’t we extend them common courtesy when asking for reasonable transparency or accommodation of a child’s needs?

Which leads us to the second major topic of conversation — parental involvement. Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) Chief of Staff Dicky Shanor said he prefers the term “parental empowerment,” since there’s nothing wrong with schools being as transparent as possible with parents, as long as it doesn’t burden teachers with a lot of extra work.

To help achieve this type of transparency, WDE created a “District Curriculum” portion of its website (edu.wyoming.gov/transparency/district-curriculum), where school districts can post information about their primary teaching resources, such as textbooks, and information about how they align with Wyoming’s K-12 state standards. Only eight districts have participated so far, and we hope to see more do so soon (including the two in Laramie County, of course).

This kind of information can help parents understand what their child will be learning, which can help them have better dinner-table conversations about important topics as they come up in school. Instead of the question “What did you learn in school today?” being met with “Not much” or “I don’t remember,” follow-up questions about lessons can be asked.

This level of parental involvement and engagement with their children helps with understanding, retention and improved test results.

We also have no argument with the concept that parents are the primary relationship a child has in their life, so they should be the ones to decide what school is best for them and have input on many aspects of a child’s education. Since so many hours each day are spent with teachers, though, these relationships need to be both positive and supported as much as possible.

As we said earlier, building partnerships between parents and teachers is the key to successful students. To do that, we need to remember that teachers are people, too. We heard from private and charter school leaders that this mutual respect is commonplace in their buildings. Why can’t it happen more in public schools, as well?

Lastly, Wyoming continues to wrestle with the issue of how to fund K-12 education and at what levels.

Rep. Brown pointed out that the state spent $1.8 billion on K-12 education during the biennium that ended June 30. The 2025-26 biennium budget, which went into effect July 1, calls for spending $2.4 billion. Regardless, it’s unclear if that’s sufficient to meet the needs of the state’s 48 districts, which is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Wyoming Education Association and several districts, including Laramie County School District 1. A decision from District Judge Peter Froelicher is forthcoming, but it’s unclear if it will be received before the next legislative session starts in January.

Some on our panel are of the opinion that the Legislature’s education savings accounts bill, passed earlier this year, didn’t go far enough in terms of offering parents options (largely thanks to Gov. Mark Gordon vetoing part of it). Others believe that diverting funds from public schools to charter or private schools is detrimental, while charter school leaders respond with the fact that public schools are no longer responsible for the children in their buildings, so of course they should get less money.

A related question is how student achievement should be tested in schools that receive public funding. Our panel seemed to be in agreement that along with public money comes a requirement to use standardized tests.

But are the tests currently being used doing a good job of measuring student competence? Some, including Wyoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, say not entirely, which is why she has successfully proposed changes that will eliminate the third-grade writing portion of the Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress (WY-TOPP) standardized test’s English Language Arts portion and make the ninth-grade math test optional.

There are no easy answers to these and many other questions that we could have spent time discussing. Should students be allowed to have smartphones in school? How can the state expand universal access to early childhood education? Is there a need for more civics education in public schools? Is enough time and emphasis being placed on career and technical education?

While there wasn’t enough time to address these and other important topics, we know there are many smart people in Wyoming’s K-12 education system who will. We need to engage with them appropriately and offer our support. With all of us working together, we can help our young people succeed, both now and in the future.