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During the 2025 legislative session, the Wyoming House considered HJ0003, a simple joint resolution supporting rural schools. It was not a massive spending bill. It had no fiscal note, no personnel impact, no new bureaucracy, and no hidden tax increase. It was a statement of support for rural schools. On House third reading, it passed 57–4. Park County’s current representative was one of the four no votes.
Voters deserve to know that, and rural families deserve an explanation. Why vote no on a resolution supporting rural schools when two of the rural schools directly affected, Valley and Wapiti, are right here in House District 24? Why was it necessary to stand against a simple statement of support for rural students, rural families, and rural communities?
That vote was wrong.
Rural schools are at the core of what it means to be Wyoming. They help create well-rounded students in a way that is uniquely Wyoming. These kids learn responsibility, independence, work ethic, community, and what it means to be known by the adults teaching them.
For rural and ranching families, these schools are not a luxury. They are a lifeline. Without them, children can be forced into brutally long days, standing at a bus stop before daylight and getting home too late for chores, homework, dinner, family time, or a normal childhood. Parents are left trying to balance school transportation with livestock, weather, irrigation, calving, feeding, fencing, and the daily work it takes to make a living in rural Wyoming.
Supporting rural schools does not mean writing a blank check. It means understanding that equality in education does not always look the same in every community. A child in Valley, Wapiti, or any rural corner of Wyoming deserves a fair shot, even if the cost of delivering that education looks different than it does in town. That is not waste. That is our constitutional duty, and it is the Wyoming way.
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