Ethan Maglione
Staff Writer
A new bill recently passed by the State Senate would prevent school district transport services from entering other school districts. On March 9, HB0178 or the Transportation of Nonresident Students Bill, was passed by the senate president.
The bill is being spearheaded by Anne Northrup and co-sponsored by Brown, Clausen, Freeman, Harshman, Paxton, Piiparinen, Coe, Driskill, Kost and Wasserburger.
The bill would result in students having to take multiple buses in order to reach one destination if the route crosses through multiple school districts.
This bill was passed so schools would stay in compliance with the school foundation formula, which states certain districts receive a set amount of funding materials based on the school size.
“The Wyoming School Foundation Program provides a guaranteed level of funding to every Wyoming public school district. This “guarantee” is essentially a block grant and is based on a number of factors, the most important of which is the number of students enrolled in the district in the prior year,” stated The Wyoming Department of Education website.
This bill has created controversy among officials as it would create logistical problems with bus routes and students reaching their destinations.
Despite the complaints, the bill has received widespread support from the senate being passed 59-1. Considering the unanimous support, it may well be on its way to being legalized.
“I feel like this new bill would discourage students from participating in sports, and would cost the school districts an exuberant amount of money that could be used in other areas,” said Jordan Johnson, a UW senior.
It is also important to note the bill will limit funding to non-resident transportation, which has been a huge problem for sectioning funding for schools. When students pass through districts, it is harder to approximate the total size and decide how much funding the school deserves.
It is also important to note the plan will require a total rework of the student transportation, which will likely be costly. The new routes will not only be more expensive to make, but also more time consuming for students and drivers using the system.
This has led some to believe that the new bill is primarily negative. However, others claim the new system is beneficial due to the fact it allows for schools to better budget for the set cost given to the schools, without accounting for external factors.
