Wyoming legislators are pressing forward on several negative education bills this session, but the House took one particularly dangerous one off the list Tuesday. Representatives voted 23-38 to kill Senate File 98, “School Board Trustees – Party Affiliation,” on third reading, the final floor vote for this bill in the 2025 session.
Opinion
The bill would have listed political party affiliation of candidates on the ballot for this nonpartisan office. As a former two-term member of the Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees, I was convinced that such a move had the potential to hollow out our local school district governance and to make school boards serve politics, not children.
Proponents claimed that knowing a party registration set six months earlier in a race at the bottom of the ballot would really fire up people to go to the polls in November. That’s a stretch. They also said it would “help” save voters the time and effort to learn about trustee candidates. Another stretch.
Consider the job of “trustee,” who does not simply represent the will of whoever delegated them. A trustee is entrusted to exercise authority for the good of a group, considering more than public opinion, drawing upon facts and policies and principles for good governance. During my time on the LCSD1 board, seven people worked together to make decisions on siting schools, purchasing playground equipment, approving student trips to France, redrawing school boundaries, installating boilers, writing discipline policies and hiring superintendents.
Of course, trustees are influenced by politics and religion and everything else in our lives, but the hard work to determine how best to provide a good education to the children we serve should come first. In LCSD1, we worked with educators and other experts, consulted our district strategic plan and welcomed input from families and community. Students were the point of every question. They were the beneficiaries of our trust.
Wyoming Statute 21-6-125 clearly puts school board trustees on a “nonpartisan” ballot. Senate File 98 would have been a subversion of that. Senate File 98 could have replaced the focus on children with political party ideology.
Everyone who relies on public schools in Wyoming to serve every student with the best staff and facilities should thank the House for deciding Tuesday that there are some places too important to subordinate to partisan labels and ideology. Elections can be processes by which people, motivated by public service, appeal to voters with experience, expertise and commitment to certain principles. We can trust an “informed electorate” to base votes on an understanding of issues and candidates.
The first duty of school board trustees is undivided loyalty to the children in their district. That can happen only with a nonpartisan election and a commitment to leave party loyalty outside the boardroom door.
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