Wyoming taxpayers spend more per student than nearly any state in the nation. Our graduates can’t do college math.
That’s not opinion. That’s what the data shows.
The Numbers
Per-pupil spending (FY2023): $19,332 — 17% above the national average of $16,560.
ACT math college-readiness (Class of 2024): Only 26% of Wyoming graduates met the benchmark. That means 74% demonstrated less than a 50% chance of passing first-year college algebra.
Postsecondary remediation: 45.8% of degree-seeking students at Wyoming colleges required developmental coursework. At community colleges, the rate was 51.7%.
Graduation rate (2024-25): 83.1% — below the national average of approximately 87%.
These aren’t cherry-picked statistics. They come from the National Center for Education Statistics, ACT Inc., the Wyoming Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System, and the Wyoming Department of Education itself.
The Paradox
Wyoming is not underfunding education. We spend like a top-10 state.
Wyoming students are not incapable. Our 4th and 8th-graders score above national averages on NAEP assessments.
Yet somewhere between 8th grade and graduation, something breaks. By the time students finish high school, nearly three-quarters cannot demonstrate readiness for college-level math. Nearly half need remedial courses when they reach college—courses that don’t count toward graduation, cost full tuition, and dramatically increase dropout rates.
High spending has not prevented poor outcomes.
3,965 Families Tried to Leave
In 2025, Wyoming enacted the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, creating Education Savings Accounts worth $7,000 per student. Nearly 4,000 families applied.
These weren’t wealthy families abandoning public schools. They were parents reviewing the data, whether or not they knew the specific numbers, and concluding that their children warranted alternatives.
The Wyoming Education Association sued to block them.
On July 15, 2025, a Laramie County judge granted a preliminary injunction. The Wyoming Supreme Court declined to stay that injunction in October. As of today, not a single dollar has reached a single family.
The same judge who blocked the ESA program had ruled five months earlier that Wyoming’s public schools are unconstitutionally underfunded.
Let that sink in: The schools are supposedly underfunded at $19,332 per student—17% above the national average—and families who want to try something different are legally prohibited from doing so.
The Question Nobody Wants to Answer
The Wyoming Constitution mandates “equal opportunity” in education. Courts have interpreted this to require equal funding across districts.
But equal funding has produced deeply unequal outcomes. A student who graduates unable to pass college algebra did not receive an equal opportunity. They received equal funding yet were equally unsuccessful.
At what point do we stop measuring inputs and start measuring results?
At what point do we acknowledge that “more money” is not the answer when we already spend more than almost everyone else?
At what point do we let families make their own choices?
What We’re Not Saying
This analysis does not claim that ESAs will solve Wyoming’s education problems. Evidence on school choice programs is mixed and context-dependent.
This analysis does not claim that teachers are the problem. Wyoming educators work within a system they didn’t design.
This analysis does not claim that spending causes poor outcomes. Many factors affect educational performance, including poverty, attendance, family stability, and post-COVID disruptions.
The data show that high spending has not been sufficient to produce acceptable outcomes. And when families sought alternatives, the institution that produced those outcomes sued to stop them.
That’s the paradox. That’s what needs to change.
Read the Full Analysis
Evidence-Based Wyoming has published a comprehensive white paper documenting these findings with full source citations. Every claim is verifiable against primary sources, including NCES, ACT, SLEDS, NAEP, and court filings.
[Download: The Wyoming Education Paradox – Full White Paper (PDF)]
Evidence-Based Wyoming provides objective, data-driven analysis of Wyoming policy. We are not affiliated with any candidate, party, or advocacy organization.
Key Sources
- National Center for Education Statistics, Annual Survey of School System Finances, FY2023
- ACT Inc., “Average ACT Test Scores by State – Graduating Class of 2024”
- Wyoming SLEDS, “Post-Secondary Education College Readiness Research” (2022)
- Wyoming Department of Education, NAEP Results (January 2025)
- Wyoming Department of Education, Graduation Rates (January 2026)
- Laramie County District Court, Case No. 2025-CV-0203366