Wyoming Schools are Flush with Money

[Catherine Vincent]

PINEDALE, Wyo. - Thanks to natural gas, Wyoming's schools have money to burn.

In the little Pinedale district way out in sagebrush country, for example, every fifth-grader has a new laptop. Many lessons are shown on oversized computer screens instead of chalkboards. And there are plans for a $17.2 million aquatic center, with a three-story climbing wall, two racquetball courts and a competition-size pool.

Rising production and soaring prices for natural gas have helped Wyoming produce huge budget surpluses over the past few years — $1.8 billion in 2006 alone and $900 million the year before that. And much of it has been pumped back into education.

The revenue stands to vault Wyoming above the rest of the country in per-student spending and represents a historic opportunity to transform education in this state and make it perhaps the finest in the country.

The big money has Jim McBride, the state's superintendent of public instruction, full of big and bold predictions. "We probably will have the nation's No. 1 graduation rate, maybe college attendance rate. We probably will have the highest NAEP scores," he said, referring to the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam.

Wyoming ranked 22nd in 2002-03 with a graduation rate of 74 percent; its college enrollment rate in 2003 was 52 percent, compared with about 58 percent nationally; and its NAEP test scores for math, reading and science in 2005 placed it above the middle of the pack. Wyoming is pumping more than 1.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year — enough for one in three homes in the United States — in a boom has been going on for nearly five years.

more....http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060919/ap_on_re_us/wyoming_natural_gas_money

That sounds real nice. It's always good for education to be loaded with money. Isn't Wyoming Dick Cheney's home state?

[MiniMandaRuth]

1. Yes... great for them...

But at the same time, my school district cannot afford money for bus gas, they can't repair our school instruments, and all of our computer systems are crap. They are down to either hiring teachers that have been teaching since 1975, or new ones who did poorly in teaching school. And, we're four million dollars in debt.

It just frustrates me. Can't another state help us? Can't Wyoming give my state some money, out of the goodness of their hearts?

[acmejack]

2. Right.

That isn't how America works anymore. Once upon a time it was, we were all in it together not anymore, especially in a Republiclown sytate. They would laugh at you. They would and have been happy to take your money, though...

[MiniMandaRuth]

3. It just depresses me so much.

That my education is being laughed at. My future. My only way out of this hell hole.

[TransitJohn]

4. Well, considering

that we were facing the first ever budget shortfall about 6 years ago, I don't see any gifts....although I wrote Gov. Freudenthal last year and begged him to send cash to Katrina victims. The GOP legislators would never make a disbursal like that. Personally, I think they ought to cut we residents a check, like they do in Alaska, and help us out.....no way that'll ever happen.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. I hear ya.

Why not give some of the overflow to another state that need it. If there are other states that can spread some of their wealth to the poorer states, it would better the education system for all kids. These are the United States.

[ThomWV]

6. To Answer Your Last Question About Cheney and Wyoming

Dick Cheney lived in Texas until the day he was sworn in. On the day he was sworn in his house in Texas was sold and he declared his home to be in Wyoming, where he is from and where he owned several properties.

Why would he change residence on the day he was sworn in as Vice President you might ask. Well, its because the Constitution does not allow both the President and the Vice President to come from the same state. Of course Cheney lived in Texas, worked in Texas, paid taxes in Texas, but why would that bother him? This was the first violation of the Constitution committed by the Bush/Cheney regime, it would certainly not prove to be the last.

[TransitJohn]

7. You're off a little

the county clerk in Teton County illegally let him register to vote (gaining residence in Wyoming) after the deadline before the general election. That's why I refer to him as a carpetbagger.

[Catherine Vincent]

8. Yes, I remember that.

The Democrats back then didn't yell loud enough about that. Of course, they figured it wouldn't matter cause they didn't know Bush/Cheney would steal the election. You don't hear anyone talk about that much (Cheney being a Texas resident).

[Jacobin]

9. Sixteenth Sections

When the founding fathers surveyed the land in this country, they divided it up into townships, consisting of 36 one mile square sections. Each sixteenth section in each township belonged to the local school board. Many have been sold by school boards over the years, but particularly in rural areas, where the school boards haven't sold the land, when oil and gas is discovered, they get nice fat checks.

Some rural parishes in Louisiana have wealthy schools districts because of this.