Wyoming school board races will continue to be nonpartisan affairs after a bill that would have listed candidates’ party affiliations on the ballot died in a late-stage House vote Tuesday.
Representatives voted 23-38 on the third and final reading of Senate File 98, “School board trustees-party affiliation.” The measure had already survived the Senate and passed two readings in the House. Failures so far along in the process typically signal that something or someone persuaded a handful of legislators to change their votes.
Testimony on Tuesday illustrated that representatives had several problems with the bill, from the added layer of politics it would inject into school board races to the fact it could prevent some candidates from running.
“The challenges that school boards face are nonpartisan in nature,” said Rep. Pam Thayer, R-Rawlins, a former school board member, echoing a common sentiment. Their work, she said, “is not about party, but about the kids.”
Party affiliation
The bill would have required candidates to select a party affiliation to accompany their name on the ballot, including Independent. School board races have long been nonpartisan, meaning party affiliations don’t appear and there are no primary elections.
The bill would make elections easier for voters and increase voter participation, bill sponsor Sen. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, said when explaining it earlier in the session.
“It provides clear voter alignment when we use partisan labels,” he said, adding that party labels “help voters quickly and reasonably identify candidates whose values and priorities align with their own political beliefs.”
Republican Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder both supported it, citing transparency concerns.
Representatives from the Wyoming School Boards Association and Wyoming Education Association spoke against the bill, along with the Equality State Policy Center, former school board members and others who said it injects an air of unnecessary polarization into these panels.
The debate about whether partisan politics have a place in school board elections comes at a time when, like it or not, partisanship already plays a growing role. Many Wyoming school board elections during the 2024 general election were defined by races that pitted liberals versus conservatives. Political action committees with deeper pockets in many places orchestrated — and helped fund — competitive races that were once typically one-person shows.
Its path
The bill encountered little friction early on as it traveled through the Legislature. It was introduced in the Senate, where it cleared the body’s education committee before passing the third reading in the chamber 18-12 on Feb. 6.
When it crossed over to the House, it passed out of the House Corporations Committee with a 7-2 vote recommending adoption. It then cleared its introductory and second reading on the House floor.
“It is a bill in reaction to the commonly very low voter turnout we see for school board elections,” Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, said as he explained the measure to the body on Friday. “Having a party affiliation printed on the ballot helps people know a little more about the views that each candidate for these positions are aligned with.”
Others pushed back, saying it’s simply unnecessary.
Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie, called it the wrong direction for Wyoming. “I think for a nonpartisan office like school board, we want people who are not partisan,” he said. “I don’t think partisan allegiance is necessarily a good indicator of how you are going to exercise your job as a member of a school board.”
“Why bring in conflict, when conflict is not needed?” Thayer, the former school board member from Rawlins, said. The focus of her work on the education board, she said, was the health, safety and welfare of students — none of which have anything to do with politics.
The measure passed its first House vote 27-25.
When it came up for its third and final reading Tuesday, many lawmakers reiterated concerns about its unintended consequences.
Lander Republican Rep. Lloyd Larson noted that there are individuals whose federal jobs prevent them from running for partisan positions. One such person is a Fremont County District 1 school board member, he said, who is a valuable member of that panel.
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, argued the bill will provide voters with needed information when they go to the polls in races that are already political.
“Man I’ll tell you what, if you go to any school board right now, there’s politics in the school board,” Haroldson said. “That’s just the reality of it.”
Haroldson and his fellow supporters were outnumbered in the vote, however.
Fabulous news! Partisan politics should not be part of Wyoming’s education system nor school board elections.
Go back to Washington, Ocean.
Bottom line, education should not be partisan. I find it somewhat alarming that this bill made it as far as it did. Having an option to vote for the party affiliation next to their name and not actually doing anything to find out about the candidate is lazy and quite frankly irresponsible voting.
A good decision to kill this bill.
Good. I hope Jared Olsen is sad
This is Wyoming. Let’s keep the noses of out-of-state party bosses out of our local governments and out of our schools.
These legislators depend on Wyoming voters turning their brains off when they see an R next to someone’s name. Thank goodness they don’t get a chance to extend it to our school boards