Early this month, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced the cancellation of the anticipated special legislative session that had been planned for next month.
The session was intended to begin efforts to find a solution to the K-12 budget issue and determine how to spend the $1.738 billion of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA.
The cancellation of the session was a disappointment to District 40 State Representative Barry Crago, but he believes the Governor made a wise decision…
The ARPA funding is divided into five categories: state fiscal recovery ($1.1 billion); capital facilities ($109 million); local fiscal recovery ($182 million); money for K-12 school districts ($303 million); and higher education ($44 million).
The biggest disappointment in this year’s session was the failure to address the K-12 funding and Crago sees the ARPA funding pushing that problem into next February…
Crago indicated that it is crucial that school districts are involved in finding solutions where teachers and teacher’s salaries are not sacrificed in future cuts.
