Wyoming
Threatened federal funding for education, workforce programs spark concern among Wyoming tribes – WyoFile
A national narrative that Job Corps isn’t working couldn’t be further from the truth in central Wyoming, according to Jared Baldes, a field director and former carpentry instructor at Wind River Job Corps in Riverton.
In a region of the state where high school dropout rates are high and traditional college paths aren’t the norm, Baldes said, Wind River Job Corps creates a viable pipeline for students to enter the workforce and earn high wages and good benefits. It helps keep youths out of the juvenile justice system, and is an important avenue for Wind River Indian Reservation youth.
“Just in my trade alone, I’ve placed 15 students this year into jobs, six of them Native American,” Baldes told members of the Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Affairs last week. “So the national narrative that Job Corps isn’t working is very wrong. Job Corps is working, and it’s very effective, and it’s changing lives.”
Now, however, the free career training program for low-income young adults is in danger. The Trump administration proposed a significant cut to the Job Corps program following an initial call to eliminate funding entirely. The U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday it will pause operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide.
“It would be very unfortunate not to be able to continue that pipeline to small businesses and businesses around the state for these young men and women being trained by very good instructors,” Baldes said.
Job Corps’ demise was among a chorus of warning bells rung during the meeting last week in Fort Washakie. Though the topic was not on the agenda, tribal representatives repeatedly raised worries that federal funding could end or decline for programs vital to Native communities.
The tenor underscored deep trepidation about impacts that could ripple from federal efforts to cut spending.
Wind River Job Corps has clearly been a positive force in the state, committee member Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, said. He remembered cedaring the dorms with his brother when the facility opened.
“I hope that [Wyoming’s congressional] delegation realizes that it’s been a boon to our economy here, and that it’s been a good thing for us,” he said. “It changes people’s lives.”
Education
School leaders are keeping close watch on potential cuts that could impact tribal education, they told the committee.
Though the Trump administration has apparently backed away from a proposal to eliminate Head Start funding, the threat remains, Eastern Shoshone Business Council Wayland Large said.
“On this reservation, each district has a Head Start — one in Fort Washakie, Ethete and Arapahoe,” Large said. The program, which is under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides early childhood education, health, nutrition and parent services to low-income families with children from birth to age 5.
Fremont County School District 38 Superintendent Curt Mayer, meanwhile, said his district is concerned about Impact Aid funding. That federal program provides financial assistance to local school districts with concentrations of children living on tribal lands as well as military bases and other federal property.
District 38 officials travel to Washington, D.C. twice a year to secure the funding, Mayer said, which is used to fund counselors, nurses, school resource officers and cultural staff in the Arapahoe schools.
Deb Smith, superintendent of the Fort Washakie Schools in Fremont County School District 21, echoed that concern.
“Impact Aid is huge for us,” Smith said. “So we’ve all been very worried about the funding, if it’s going to be there in the future.”
Committee chairman Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, asked about other implications.
“It seems that the situation is evolving with respect to our federal partners in education,” Case said, “and I’m wondering what kind of implications are there, for example, with the elimination of the Department of Education?”
If the DOE goes away, Smith said, the hope is that Impact Aid can survive in a different federal department. Other areas of concern include federal funding for free and reduced lunch programs, Title I funds that help schools with high percentages of low-income students and similar programs.
“We can’t provide some of the programming and resources without that funding,” she said. “And it’s scary. It’s very scary.”
Lawmakers listened sympathetically to Smith and others’ concerns but remained relatively mum.
Higher ed
Central Wyoming College in Riverton has the state’s largest Trio Program, CWC President Dr. Brad Tyndall told the committee. The federal program offers outreach and services designed to provide pre-college services for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
There are roughly 650 eligible students in the CWC service area, Tyndall said, and the college works with them by going through the high schools to identify and help students.
“The recommendation from the White House budget is to cut all of that, and that would be devastating to our community, and especially our Native Americans, but it would be everybody,” he said. “The economic impact to the state is huge, and begs the question: ‘What do we do if that money goes away as a state?’”
College officials are also concerned about Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions Program, or NASNTI, grants, Tyndall said, which are on hold.
“But NASNTI is kind of dwarfed by Trio,” he said.
The college is also concerned about some changes to the Pell Grant availability in the federal budget bill, CWC Vice President of Student Affairs Coralina Daly said.
The changes would require students to take 15 credits per semester.
With many at-risk students, she said, taking 12 credits “is a significant load already. To ask them to take another class is really impeding their ability to be successful.”
There also is a proposal to cut Pell for part-time students, she added, “so all of these students that we know who are working and have these other obligations are going to have less access to aid.”
Federal work study is also slated to be canceled in the budget bill, she said. “So that is another opportunity that would go away.”
Of the funding coming to CWC’s self-identified tribal students, Daly said, “71% of those funds are coming from federal sources. That is disproportionately larger than our overall population.
“I think it’s important to note those federal funds are incredibly important for our tribal students,” she said.
The federal budget bill, officially called the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, passed the U.S. House last week. It must still clear the Senate.
Uncertainty
Other areas of concern included Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which are both targeted for cuts.
Conversations during the committee meeting also highlighted a high level of confusion related to when or how federal money will come through, the fact that some funds that were frozen have been released and if and how court intervention will impact programs.
For example, staff in the federal department that oversees the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIEAP, were eliminated this spring, spurring worries that the program would end.
“It does help our elders and the community with the gas and the lights,” Eastern Shoshone Business Council member Latonna Snyder said. “So that’s a big issue.”
However, LIEAP in Wyoming has been funded through September, the Wyoming Department of Family Services announced this spring, adding that for the time being, no changes were anticipated.
Chance of rain in parts of Wyoming on Sunday with some sun in the south. Breezy overnight with a chance of rain early. Highs from the mid 50s to near 80. Lows from the mid 20s to upper 40s.
Central:
Casper: Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny and breezy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.
Riverton: Chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 72 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Shoshoni: Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny and windy today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 36 mph.
Southwest:
Evanston: Sunny today with a high near 61 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 33.
Green River: Sunny and breezy today with a high near 66 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.
Kemmerer: Breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 61 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with a low near 33 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.
Western Wyoming:
Pinedale: Slight chance of rain, breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 59 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear and blustery overnight with a low near 29 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Alpine: Chance of rain, gradually clearing today with a high near 64 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 35.
Big Piney: Breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 62 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and blustery overnight with a low near 27 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Northwest:
Dubois: Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 57 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 34 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Jackson: Chance of rain, gradually becoming mostly sunny today with a high near 62 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 33.
Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park: Rain likely today with a high near 50 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain before 11 p.m., a low near 29 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.
Bighorn Basin:
Thermopolis: Rain likely today with a high near 66 and mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 43.
Cody: Rain likely, cloudy and breezy today with a high near 63 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain before 10 p.m. and a low near 43.
Ten Sleep: Rain likely, breezy today with a high near 65 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Gradually becoming clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.
North Central:
Buffalo: Rain likely, breezy today with a high near 61 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.
Sheridan: Rain likely, mostly cloudy today with a high near 64 and wind from 16-21 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 38 and wind from 11-16 mph.
Big Horn: Rain likely today with a high near 62 and wind from 11-16 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 42.
Northeast:
Gillette: Rain likely today with a high near 63 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight, a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.
Newcastle: Rain likely today with a high near 69 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.
Upton: Rain likely today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.
Eastern Plains:
Torrington: Sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
Lusk: Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
Midwest: Rain likely, otherwise partly sunny and breezy today with a high near 68 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Breezy, gradually becoming clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Southeast:
Cheyenne: Sunny and breezy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
Laramie: Sunny and windy today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Medicine Bow: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 68 and wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 37 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph.
South Central:
Rawlins: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Saratoga: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 68 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.
Hanna: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 66 and wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Wyoming
Children’s Hospital Colorado hosts Wyoming Pediatric Mental Health Symposium in downtown Casper
CASPER, Wyo. — Children’s Hospital Colorado hosted the Wyoming Pediatric Mental Health Symposium, a first-of-its-kind event designed to shine a light on adolescent mental health in Wyoming and beyond.
The event, which took place over a two-day period May 13 and 14, was “designed for mental health, school, and healthcare professionals seeking to deepen their expertise in pediatric mental health,” according to a brochure from the hospital.
According to the FDA, pediatrics cover those ages 0-21, and that’s exactly who mental health professionals who attended the symposium wanted to reach. Professionals across a wide spectrum gathered at the Best Western Downtown to learn more about counseling and crisis centers, schools, hospitals, primary care practices and outpatient services. They received clinical updates and engaged in discussions regarding current, evidence-informed issues that impact the care of pediatric patients and mental health needs.
And, according to the professionals, there are a lot of mental health needs in Wyoming.
“We’re here to work with folks in Wyoming about pediatric mental health concerns,” said Sandra Fritsch, MD, MSEd, DFAACAP. “May is mental health awareness month, so what a great two days to be here to talk about that during this time, as well as the challenges for access to care for pediatric mental health that exists nationally.”
Fritsch said the goal she and her peers had was to increase knowledge and awareness for everyone who attended the conference, whether they work at a school or a hospital or are a community health worker. She said she wanted to foster a commitment in the community to have real, open conversations about pediatric mental health.
Geographic densities are big reasons that mental health assistance is so hard to find in Wyoming, Fritsch said. However, they’re not the only reasons.
“I think awareness and then knowing the resources you can tap into is really important when it comes to pediatric mental health,” she said. “I do think that we need to have a dedicated approach to increasing the workforce, and that’s the workforce of everyone, whether it be a community health worker who can do screenings, therapists who can be in schools, traditional therapists, child psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners who can help assess and treat. I think building workforce is something that’s really essential.”
Fritsch said that the suicide rate in Wyoming is staggering, especially for youth, but the pandemic reminded people about the notion of mental health and its importance among the community.
“It actually created awareness and opportunities for a conversation that more people are willing to engage in,” she said. “And the other thing, too, is the notion of putting the head back on the body. Looking at the whole being is really important, and seeing more of that from a prevention and early intervention standpoint, that’s what I would love to see a lot more of.”
Early prevention in adolescence, Fritsch said, begins with parents.
“How are we working with families before they’re even having kids?” she asked. “Being a parent is the hardest job in the world. It’s an apprenticeship program. It’s trial by fire. You think you’ve got it straight with one kid and then you get the next one and it could be completely different. So how do we help support that as well?”
Fritsch said there are no simple solutions, but there there are things people can try.
“One thing I would want is for families to have plans for how they’re together and when they’re together, how they’re off screen, etc.,” she said. “So family meal times, family activity times, things like that. And working on ensuring good, quality sleep I think is really important for all concerned, from that standpoint.”
She also said it’s important to help caregivers meet kids where they’re at developmentally.
“It’s about understanding that and promoting positive success and celebrating those successes and moving forward from that standpoint,” she said. “The other thing, too, is earlier identification and treatment for mild to moderate conditions. You can have anxiety as a preschooler. It’s different than what it looks like as an adult, but being able to address that may offset that depression you would otherwise have when you’re a teenager.”
Fritsch herself spoke at the symposium, heading a talk called “Assessment and Treatment of Depression in Pediatric Primary Care.” The following day, she gave a talk called “Putting Evidence Into Practice: Approaches for Pediatric Anxiety and Trauma Related Disorders.”
Both of these presentations offered insight into mental health needs across Wyoming, Colorado and the entire country.
“I just want people to have an awareness of the breadth of what our understanding of mental health is for the youth population,” she said. “How it can play out in the school setting, how it can play out in the primary setting, how it can play out in the community. And then I want to bring that information back to where they’re at and come up with some commitments to how they way want to do things differently based on what they’ve learned.”
For more information on pediatric mental health, visit www.childrenscolorado.org/.
Related
Sunlight Research Center’s Michael Nolan and Seraphina Feron provided research and data analysis.
by Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile
Thousands of acres southeast of Cheyenne owned by and associated with U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis lie in the path of Microsoft’s planned data center expansion, Laramie County property records show.
One of Microsoft’s existing data centers — a climate-controlled warehouse of computers, data storage and networks — sits southeast of Cheyenne on land the company purchased from the Lummis family in 2021. In April, the Seattle-area tech giant announced plans to buy 200 acres adjacent to its data center in the Bison Business Park and said it will purchase another 3,000 acres nearby.
Lummis, members of her family and companies associated with them own about 6,000 contiguous acres that almost surround the Microsoft center. Microsoft displayed a map Thursday at a Cheyenne community information session showing its 3,200-acre expansion extending into that Lummis family property.
Microsoft’s pending purchases land at the doorstep of one of tech’s biggest supporters in Congress. Lummis, known as the crypto queen of the Senate, has sponsored at least five significant cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, blockchain, stablecoin and tech bills. Political action committees associated with her received $1.34 million, including from major cryptocurrency and tech interests, since Dec. 31, 2021 and July 2025, WyoFile and reporting partner the Sunlight Research Center have found.
Microsoft and members of Lummis family — the senator, her brother Doran and daughter Annaliese Wiederspahn — would not comment or agree to interviews about the development or their relationship to the project. The senator’s family has owned much of the expansion property for decades — some dating back to 1944 and before — and has a long history of ranching, real estate transactions and business operations in and around Cheyenne.
Wiederspahn is a board member of Cheyenne LEADS, a corporation dedicated to area economic development, including data centers.
Microsoft’s land-buy announcement comes as Cheyenne is quickly becoming a data-center hub — the city is weighing proposals for 40 to 70 new data centers, according to some estimates — amid questions among area residents about water and energy usage, plus sweeping changes to the landscape. Those concerns prompted the Cheyenne City Council to consider a moratorium on new data centers, but local officials ultimately voted against such a measure.
Lummis has heard those queries, she wrote in a September op-ed.
“During my travels across Wyoming, countless folks have approached me about AI and the data centers coming to our state,” she wrote. “I tell them the truth: If we don’t power America’s AI with Wyoming energy, China will build their AI dominance on their coal instead.”
Abundant energy and land
Data centers are large, climate-controlled warehouses that contain computers, data storage and networks — used by Microsoft to establish and maintain the Microsoft Cloud, where data is kept. “[Y]ou can store your photos, play Xbox games, video call with your family, and work on documents from anywhere and on any device, without needing a powerful computer,” the company explains.
While some data centers focus on storage, others focus on providing the computing power to operate artificial intelligence. Those servers can also be used for bitcoin mining.
Wyoming’s coal and potential nuclear power generation are a plus for energy-hungry data centers and AI, Lummis has stated. Wyoming’s cool climate and lack of corporate business tax also fuel data center development near Cheyenne. The state’s open land is another plus for data center development — and Lummis and her family own a lot of it.
“Folks have approached me about AI and the data centers coming to our state. I tell them the truth.”
Cynthia Lummis
Microsoft established its existing data center southeast of Cheyenne on 249 acres of Lummis-family land in the Bison Business Park in 2021, a subdivision created through a fast-track planning process. Arp and Hammond Hardware Co., whose president is Lummis’ brother Doran Lummis, carved out an adjacent 200-acre parcel in April 2025, a year before the tech company announced its intent to expand there.
Beyond that, Lummis’ family owns almost all the surrounding land — about 6,000 acres of it — including property mapped for purchase by Microsoft and displayed at Thursday’s open house in Cheyenne. The sprawling holdings, most of which are unirrigated rangeland, are owned by Lummis family companies Arp and Hammond, Lummis Livestock Co., Old Horse Pasture Inc. and Sweetgrass Land Co., Laramie County property records show.
The expansion, Microsoft said in an April statement, will be “strengthening Southeast Wyoming’s role as a growing hub for technology-driven economic activity, innovation and job creation.”
Crypto Queen
Lummis, elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1979 at 24, was the youngest woman to serve in the Legislature. Voters then elected her to the state Senate, Wyoming treasurer and, in 2008, as Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative. She won election to the Senate in 2020, defeating Democrat Merav Ben-David with 73% of the vote.
Lummis announced in December she won’t seek reelection this year.
While in the Senate, Lummis has advocated for and sponsored legislation boosting cryptocurrencies — virtual money like bitcoin and stablecoins — and supported technology innovators, artificial intelligence and blockchain.
In 2021, “I founded the Financial Innovation Caucus to educate my fellow senators about the vast potential of emerging technologies to promote financial inclusion and build new wealth for all,” she said in a statement that year.
In December 2022, she placed her shares of Microsoft (valued between $15,000-$50,000) and bitcoin (valued between $50,000-$100,000) in a blind trust “to avoid any conflict of interest or appearance of any such conflict.”
Details about the land sale, including the price, have not been publicly disclosed.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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