Charter School Legislation Proposals Set For General Session

The Wyoming Association of Public Charter Schools will be at the next session of the Wyoming legislature that begins next January 11th, lobbying for changes to Wyoming Law.

Kari Cline, the Association's Executive Director says they'll focus on two pieces of legislation.

One  addresses the review process proposing that an applicant charter school work through a statewide advisory committee.  "That would mean that all applicants coming in with applications for charter schools within the state of Wyoming go through the advisory committee to create really a level of expectation that's required of all applicants."

The second piece of legislation, Cline says, would strengthen the appeal process and allow denied applicants to appeal directly to the State Board of Education.  "So it puts a little, I guess, teeth behind the state board and their function, so the local board knows that if they're just arbitrarily saying,  'Ahh, we don't want a charter school in our community'- and they don't have great reasons to deny that- then the state board can actually look at that and say, 'You can't arbitrarily and capriciously deny this.'  And they can say to the district, "You will charter this school.' "

There are currently only two charter schools in the State of Wyoming. One in Laramie, the Snowy Range Academy and the other is the Fort Washakie Charter High School; both very different. Cline says that's what charter schools do best is serve a very specific type of student or style of learning.