Senate panel approves select committee to recalibrate school finance model

House Bill 316, which the Senate Education Committee passed Feb. 14, establishes a bipartisan select recalibration committee charged with recalibrating Wyoming’s education resource block grant model and appropriates $920,000 to the Legislative Service Office (LSO) for professional consultants and committee expenses. The committee vote was 5–0.

The bill creates a select recalibration committee composed of six appointees from each chamber, with one appointment from the minority party on each side, and requires co-chairs appointed from each house. Appointments must be made by March 30, 2025, and state agencies, school districts and the school district or school data advisory committee are required to provide data and information to LSO and its consultants for the committee’s work. House Bill 316 also directs that the committee develop component prices intended for the 2026–27 school year.

Why it matters: Wyoming’s school-finance model is governed by a cost-based approach the state has applied since court rulings in the Campbell litigation. The recalibration process sets component prices and inflation adjustments that determine how the Legislature funds the block grant; changes can affect allocations to all school districts statewide. The bill funds outside consulting and authorizes the LSO to convene the committee and collect required data.

Details of the bill and the committee process

Tanya Heitrich, Legislative Service Office operations administrator, and Matthew Wilmarth, LSO senior school-plans analyst, described the committee’s structure and timeline. Wilmarth said “this bill comes to you from management council and it establishes a select recalibration committee” and that the committee “will meet approximately 12 meeting days over the course of the interim.” He also said LSO has budgeted $920,000 for consultants and committee expenses.

Wilmarth and Heitrich told members that consultants will review the current funding model, examine historical and national best-practice data, and recommend prices that align with a cost-based model. LSO identified a desk audit by Dr. Pykis and Alan Oden that management council approved in November; Wilmarth said the desk audit is expected to be complete in April and that those consultants may be invited to brief the select committee.

LSO staff said the committee’s recommendations are targeted to establish prices for the 2026–27 school year. The consultants will review inflation through the external cost adjustment analysis used by Agency 205; Wilmarth explained the consultants “do account for that inflation as part of what they will review under our current funding model.”

Court and statutory context

Multiple witnesses cited the Campbell cases as the constitutional and legal framework requiring the legislature to define a basket of…