Wyoming
Big land, small schools: Inside the politics of rural education in Wyoming
Wyoming’s smallest schools aim to meet kids where they’re at
Educators say smaller schools and class sizes allows for individualized education, and for kids to teach each other across grade levels.
The thought of one-room schoolhouses evokes dirt floors, dusty chalkboards, and Little House on the Prairie. But Wyoming, America’s least populated state, still has 18 schools with three rooms or less.
Small schoolhouses and rural education in the Cowboy State are rooted in Wyoming’s constitution, which guarantees a right to an education and outlines the state’s funding model. Students across the state are legally entitled to equitable access to resources, regardless of geographic location.
“Not every state has a constitution that even talks about education,” said Barbara Hickman, assistant professor at the University of Wyoming’s College of Education. “To have it in the constitution that there is a requirement from the people of Wyoming to appropriately fund our public education system, that matters.”
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The block grant funding model sets benchmarks for funding across the state. Counties that generate enough revenue to fund their schools independently are designated as “recapture” counties and feed their excess dollars back to the state.
The majority of the state’s counties are “entitlement” counties, which means that they rely on state funds and counties with surpluses to help cover their educational costs. Funding levels are adjusted for the state’s smallest districts.
“I think that the model has been put together to try to be equitable and adequate across the state. So if you’re a smaller district, you get quite a bit more money per student,” incoming executive director for the Wyoming Association of School Administrators Boyd Brown said.
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This reality plays out in schools such as Park County’s Valley Elementary, built in 1918. Nestled along the South Fork River and backdropped by the Absaroka mountains, the school has eight students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. Michelle Dean has taught at Valley for eight years.
Dean and other teachers in these schools face unusual challenges In addition to grizzly bear-proof fences and brutally long winters, teachers must manage curriculums across multiple grade levels and access points for learners across grade levels.
This spring’s project centered around vermicomposting (composting with earthworms) and challenged students to develop their own. Students based experiments around questions like “Can worms jump?” “Do worms like music?” and “Can you train worms to do tricks?”
“I didn’t want the students just working at their desk, at their own grade levels. So I was thinking of how to bring them together and create a community of learners,” Dean said.
Dean noted the challenge of multi-curricular teaching but argued that it paid off in the level of individualized education students receive and said that the students can mentor and teach each other across grade levels.
“Students have more freedom to explore their interests, if they need more time to work on a concept, they have it,” Dean said. “My fifth graders are super supportive of my kindergarteners, and my kindergarteners just bloom with that.”
Schools like Sheridan County’s Slack Elementary, built in 1937 and tucked into the base of the Big Horn mountains, often act as anchors in some of the state’s most rural areas. Many students hail from ranching families and get to school on the same roads their parents took. School events, such as Slack’s beginning-of-year ice cream social and Valley’s annual Christmas play, are gathering places for the surrounding communities.
“The community that shows up. It’s not just the kids that are here, it’s the community that shows up—not just from the kids that are here, but anyone who lives out here,” Principal Ryan Fuhrman said.
Karin Unruh has taught at Sublette County’s Bondurant Elementary for over ten years and said that one of her favorite parts of the job is being embedded in the community. She firmly stands by the quality of the education offered in Wyoming’s smallest communities.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand that rural schools can still have access to really good resources and can provide a high level of education to the students. The students can still learn a lot, have their needs met, and actually get more individualized attention than in larger schools,” Unruh said.
Once the students at Bondurant, Valley, Slack, and many other small schools in Wyoming are old enough to travel alone, they will have to brave multi-hour bus rides into the nearest town. To Unruh, investing in rural schools is an investment in the communities’ futures.
“If there aren’t schools in the community, it’s harder to bring in new families, so having a school in a community really keeps the community alive, and keeps people involved in the community,” Unruh said.
While these small schoolhouses may not be the cheapest way to educate students, Larry Gerber, principal of Valley School, says their existence is grounded in the needs of the students.
“If you’re a five-year-old, do you want to spend four hours on a school bus? Is that what’s best for you? Especially for our little guys, to be able to be on a bus for fifteen minutes versus two hours, it’s a dramatic difference,” said Gerber. “The people I always talk to are always surprised that someone would pay that much money for eight kids. What I always retort is, what if one of those eight kids was yours?
Cy Neff reports on Wyoming politics for USA TODAY. You can reach him at cneff@usatoday.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CyNeffNews
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Wyoming Sun Bucks is a net gain for children, families
Dear Casper,
Rep. Ken Pendergraft’s recent column opposing the Sun Bucks program raises concerns about cost, but it does so in a way that risks giving readers an incomplete picture.
It is true that the Department of Family Services requested approximately $3.5 million for startup and operations. However, that figure represents a combined state and federal investment, split evenly. Wyoming’s share is half of that — and more importantly, those dollars are not intended to purchase food directly. They fund the administrative framework required to deliver federally funded benefits to eligible children.
Those responsibilities are not trivial. They include verifying eligibility, processing applications, maintaining technology systems, preventing fraud and ensuring benefits are accurately distributed. Without that infrastructure, the program simply cannot function, and no child would receive assistance.
The initial startup cost of $1.6 million covers one-time expenses such as building the IT system, setting up application processing, contracting with the EBT vendor that issues and loads benefit cards, and establishing temporary staffing and support systems to serve families statewide. This is not “an office for one person,” but the foundation of a program designed to reach roughly 32,000 children.
Once operational, the ongoing cost to Wyoming is estimated at about $483,000 per year in state funds. In return, the program would deliver approximately $3.84 million annually in federal food benefits to Wyoming children. That is a significant net gain for families across the state.
While the article emphasizes administrative expenses, it overlooks the scale of the benefit those costs unlock. The question is not whether administration exists — it must — but whether the outcome justifies the investment. In this case, a relatively modest state contribution enables millions in direct food assistance to flow into Wyoming communities.
Reasonable people can debate the role of government programs. But that debate should be grounded in a full accounting of both costs and benefits. When viewed in that light, the Sun Bucks program is less about bureaucracy and more about whether Wyoming chooses to participate in a federally funded effort to help ensure children have access to food during the summer months.
Mike Thompson, Chairman of the Department of Family Services Oversight Council
Evansville
Wyoming GOP endorsement of candidates
Dear Casper,
I have read about the plans for the Wyoming Republican party to endorse specific candidates in the upcoming primary election. It is my understanding that the state law currently prevents the Wyoming Republican party from officially endorsing a candidate. I agree with the party’s position that this is not in keeping with the party and its members’ First Amendment right to free speech.
However, I think that the party should be careful in exercising this right. As the purpose of the primary election is to select the candidate that the majority of the registered Republican party members feel is best suited for the position, it feels like there could be a conflict of interest in explicitly endorsing a specific candidate without receiving the input from all of the registered members of the party.
Without seeking the input of the entire Republican electorate, how will the party itself provide a fair and accurate endorsement of a candidate? I certainly hope that the party leadership is not intending to offer an endorsement on behalf of the entire party based simply on what they (the leadership) might believe. To offer such an endorsement without seeking the input from all of the party members would be anti-democratic and would invoke Orwellian images of the party which, rather than listening to and responding to the input from the party members, would tell the party members what they should think.
If the members of the party leadership wish to offer an endorsement, they should do so as individuals and should not presume to speak for the entire membership of the party, at least not before the entire Republican electorate has had a chance to provide input regarding a party-level endorsement.
To circumvent this problem, I would recommend that the Republican party hold a vote among all of its registered members to determine whom the party ought to endorse. Maybe we could hold an event where polling places are established, where party members can go to indicate their preference for that endorsement. This would provide a fair and democratic method to ensure that the Republican party’s endorsement reflects the will of the party members.
I think that there might be an event similar to what I have described scheduled for Aug. 18. Maybe the party could do more or less the same thing for their endorsement event — or just wait until then.
Carlos Buckner
Casper
Related
The 2026 Wyoming High School boys’ soccer season is close to its finish. Only three weeks remain. 4A teams will conclude the regular season, as they jockey for positions going into next week’s regional tournaments. Meanwhile, 3A schools have this week and next week left in the regular season. They are trying to reach the top four of the league standings, as those are the teams that qualify for the state tournament in two weeks.
WYOPREPS WEEK 8 BOYS SOCCER SCHEDULE 2026
Three matches this week feature ranked opponents squaring off. Sheridan will host Thunder Basin on Friday. In 3A on Saturday, top-ranked Cody is at No. 5 Mountain View, and four-rated Torrington goes to No. 2 Buffalo. Just like the ladies, you have some rivalry matches on the schedule with Rock Springs-Green River, Jackson-Star Valley, and Thunder Basin-Campbell County. Wednesday will bring new soccer rankings. This is the boys’ schedule for Week 8. Schedules are subject to change.
TUESDAY, MAY 5:
CLASS 4A
Final Score: #2 Sheridan 2 Campbell County 1 (conference match)
Final Score: Riverton 3 Natrona County 1 (conference match)
CLASS 3A
Pinedale at Rawlins – postponed to May 11 – changed to May 9 for boys’ match only!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6:
CLASS 4A
Laramie at Cheyenne Central – postponed to May 9
Cheyenne South at Cheyenne East – postponed to May 9
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WyoPreps Coaches & Media Soccer Polls 4-22-26
WyoPreps Boys Soccer Standings on 4-20-26
WyoPreps Week 5 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
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WyoPreps Week 4 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
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WyoPreps Week 1 Boys Soccer Scores 2026
THURSDAY, MAY 7:
CLASS 4A
Final Score: #1 Jackson 8 Star Valley 2 (conference match)
Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 3 Campbell County 1 (conference match)
Final Score: Rock Springs 2 #5 Green River 1 (conference match)
FRIDAY, MAY 8:
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Cheyenne Central 6 Cheyenne South 0 (conference match)
Final Score: #2 Sheridan 3 #4 Thunder Basin 1 (conference match)
Final Score: #2 Kelly Walsh 6 Riverton 0 (conference match)
Final Score: Laramie 3 Cheyenne East 1 (conference match)
Final Score: Evanston 2 Natrona County 2 – TIE (conference match) – Red Devils scored with 1 second left for the draw.
CLASS 3A
Final Score: #4 Worland 1 Rawlins 0 (conference match) – Kobe Bradshaw scored the GW goal on a PK in the 1st half.
Final Score: Douglas 2 Torrington 2 (conference match) – Shootout = Torrington wins 4-3!
Final Score: #1 Cody Lyman (conference match)
Final Score: #2 Lander 3 Pinedale 0 (conference match)
Final Score: Powell 1 #5 Mountain View 0 (conference match) – Gianrey Dallesandro with the GW-goal, assisted by Ethan Frame.
Final Score: #3 Buffalo 1 Newcastle 0 (conference match) – forfeit win for the Bison.
SATURDAY, MAY 9:
CLASS 4A
Laramie at Cheyenne Central, 11 a.m. (conference match)
Evanston at #2 Kelly Walsh, noon (conference match)
Cheyenne South at Cheyenne East, noon (conference match)
Riverton at Natrona County, noon (conference match)
Rock Springs at Star Valley, 1 p.m. (conference match)
CLASS 3A
Pinedale at Rawlins, 11 a.m.
#1 Cody at #5 Mountain View, noon (conference match)
Powell at Lyman, noon (conference match)
Torrington at #3 Buffalo, 2 p.m. (conference match)
#4 Worland at Douglas, 2 p.m. (conference match)
Final Score: Rawlins 1 Newcastle 0 (conference match) – forfeit win for the Outlaws.
Cheyenne Central vs. Cheyenne East HS Softball 2026
The Indians faced the rival Thunderbirds on April 15, 2026
Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com
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