House Approves Schoool Construction Funding Bill

A bill that funds the construction of new schools in the state has received final approval in the Wyoming House of Representatives.  This despite an effort by the House Education Committee Chairman to remove some money from the bill.  Lingle Republican Matt Teeters complained that lawmakers are building some schools too big and have obligated too many schools to be built.

“We have traditionally spent approximately  $200 million dollars per year for a total of 400 million in these past few years in the biennium and this single budget spends and obligates around $600-million dollars.”

But a number of Representatives countered that there is a backlog of schools that need to be built and other buildings need to be able to deal with capacity issues due to growing school populations.  Casper Republican Steve Harshman noted that the state was setting aside plenty of future school construction money in reserve.