Education transparency bill dies in House committee

CHEYENNE —A bill pushing for instructional material transparency died Monday in the House Education Committee after educators testified it would be a burden.

Senate File 62 was brought forward by Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, because he said he is continually approached by constituents concerned about their school districts. Some of those parents spoke out in committee meetings before the vote that they are unable to gain access to their students’ learning materials and ignored by their local school boards.

“Teachers educate our kids, but they do it in conjunction with parents,” Driskill said. “And the way you become an engaged parent is to understand what your kids are being taught, how they’re being taught, and it brings you in.”

While representatives said they saw a need for the Civics Transparency Act based on complaints across the state, it led to a division among them when it came time to vote. 

Four voted to move SF 62 to the chamber floor for consideration, but five voted against.

Opposing the bill were Reps. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne; Steve Harshman, R-Casper; Cathy Connolly, D-Laramie; Jerry Obermueller, R-Casper, and Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale. Those in support were committee Chairman Jerry Paxton, R-Encampment, along with Sens. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie; Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, and Sandy Newsome, R-Cody. 

Although they did not give their reasons for killing the bill, opponents on the committee were supported by more than 15 educators and stakeholders who spoke Monday afternoon. Opponents were even joined in testimony by a ten-year-old student who said the bill would be harmful to his educational experience.

“It is really cool that my teacher is able to look up answers to things we are interested in. It means we are learning even more,” he said. “If this bill passed, I think that teachers would not do as much because it would be more things that they have to keep track of and put on their list. I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

SF 62 would have required teachers to publish a list of all the instructional material utilized by K-12 public schools, from worksheets to guest lectures they planned. But before the legislation was received by the House Education Committee, it changed considerably in scope.

Senators amended the bill to remove civic teaching requirements and examinations to graduate from high school. 

The deadline for them to post their materials was also pushed back one year, in order to prepare for the process and workload they had to take on. Driskill said he supported the changes on the chamber floor because it focused purely on the transparency aspect, which many other legislators approved of.

Teachers said this would be too overwhelming, considering the schedules they have due to the pandemic. At minimum, they have to plan lessons for both virtual and in-person classes with no extra time, grade assignments, find new materials and still cultivate a healthy learning environment. This does not address the fact some said they are teaching six different classes in rural districts, with nearly 2,000 different learning materials a year.

“Transparency is important, without a doubt, because I need the parents to trust me as a teacher or else my kids are not going to learn,” social studies teacher Dane Waver said. “But I think that posting all this material on a list that we would all have to put together is a tedious task; it doesn’t get us anywhere. It doesn’t get us close to where we want, because the vast majority of parents are not going to look through all that, especially when that’s just one class.”

But representatives and stakeholders argued there are parents who will want to sift through the information, and to know every aspect of what their child is learning. Neiman was adamant this opportunity should be guaranteed because teachers work for the parents, and he wants them involved.

Mariah Learned, a reading and math interventionist at the University of Wyoming, said she doesn’t think it would be enough for concerned parents either way.

“What I think you will find is that parents will not be satisfied with this list,” she said. “It doesn’t actually get to the root of the issue, which is wanting to know what’s happening in that classroom. A list of materials is not going to tell you what I do in a 45-minute intervention period with a student, but a conversation with me would. Coming into my classroom absolutely would.”

Legislators listened to testimony from educators with similar perspectives for nearly two hours, and made their final decision in the last five minutes of the committee meeting.