Platte Valley residents recently heard information on what is happening in their state education system, as several speakers, including state officials, got the chance to express their views on Senate File 104.
Taylor Haynes, president and chief medical officer for Mountain Benefit Management Corporation in Cheyenne, spoke at the Platte Valley Christian Center Saturday. Cindy Hill, state superintendent of public instruction, Sheryl Lain, instructional leader and deputy for Hill, and Jen Young, state chairman of the constitution party of Wyoming, spoke Monday at the Platte Valley Community Center. Both venues were filled with local supporters to hear what the speakers had to say, and give their comments and ask questions.
The speakers expressed their concerns on Senate File 104, which was already signed by Gov. Matt Mead and made law. SF104 established that an appointed official would assume most of the duties performed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. It also transferred specific duties from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to the Director of the State Department of Education.
Opposers believe their rights have been stripped with the passage of SF104.
“With SF104, without coming forward as a constitutional amendment, the legislature decided to create a new part of education and put it under the government,” Haynes said. “The problem with that is that changes what was written in our constitution without going through the constitutional process. I’m not calling SF104 bad, I’m saying it was a pathway to make education better, but the process by which we got there was incorrect and we need to correct the process.”
For those in opposition, the State Central Committee of the Wyoming Republican Party passed a resolution April 6 to endorse a referendum to appeal SF104. The referendum seeks to repeal 2013 Senate Enrolled Act No. 1 (the law resulting from the passage of SF104), which amended the duties of, and transferred specific duties from, the state superintendent of public instruction to the director of the state department of education. The referendum would get on the ballot in 2014.
Throughout Wyoming there is a petition circulating to support the referendum that seeks to repeal 2013 Senate Enrolled Act No. 1, and at least 37,606 valid signatures statewide are required for the referendum to get on the ballot. Haynes said he supported the referendum, and believed it is the right of the people to have a say in SF104 being instated or not.
“Once you take the peoples’ voice away, then we don’t have the third leg in the stool,” he said. “We have government of, for and by the people, and if you take away ‘by the people’, you now have tyranny. You can have tyranny in any form when the government acts without the will of the people. Without the consent of the government, that’s tyranny, or when people fear the government, that’s tyranny.”
Haynes also mentioned the more people understand how the issue is about having a voice and their right to vote, more people would be interested in the referendum to appeal SF104.
“People need to take charge and put that on a ballot, then when that plays out, either way people have a voice and can take that step and say ‘In our district we want control of our schools,’” he said. “We’re dealing with the issues and not with the people involved and their personal vendettas. I also have to stress that this is not the Cindy Hill Bill, and if you have to name this bill, it’s the ‘voter’s rights’ bill.”
In addition to hearing the voice of the public, Haynes said he cares enough to make sure his own voice is heard too.
“I want people to have a right to vote, and that includes me,” he said. “I want my right to make my check in the box for the person I think is best for a given job, and that’s how we maintain our liberty, freedom and government. It’s about your right to vote and educating our kids, and if people get that I think we’ll be a success. Although, it is a struggle and the referendum process is set up to make it a struggle.”
Haynes further stressed the importance of the people having a say over SF104 being passed or not. He said for that reason it is imperative that the SF104 referendum gets on the ballot.
“If it’s on the ballot and the people vote, however the vote comes down the people have said ‘We’re going to have a say in what happens in this state,’” he said. “People have to have a say in what happens in the state, and it’s not unheard of because it’s in our constitution and our form of government. If the people have a voice and they vote in the general election and on this issue, I’m satisfied because our process has been served; but if the people are silenced and told, ‘Don’t worry your pretty little head we know what we’re doing’, I’m troubled by that.”
At the Platte Valley Community Center Monday, Hill, Lain and Young shared their feelings on SF 104, and both, Hill and Lain also spoke about Wyoming’s Common Core State Standards in the state education department. Hill mentioned that as a citizen she was also opposed to having her vote and voice taken away, as well as her duties as state superintendent.
“I would never want this important position to be an appointed position by a single person, in this case the governor,” she said. “When I was elected the people assumed there were some things I was going to be responsible for, but it’s a power grab and he’s now responsible for those things. When the people voted for governor, did they know that they were voting for the next education governor and that his and my job duties would change? They didn’t know that.”
Hill said things could have turned out differently if people knew Gov. Mead would also be in charge of education.
“If you voted for Gov. Mead, you may not have thought you were voting for the ‘education governor’,” she said. “People probably would have wanted to know what he thought about education, but he is our first education governor and not because he was voted in.”
With the public in mind, Hill said also she wanted people to know that the purpose of the referendum was more geared to them having a choice in the matter.
“It isn’t about Cindy Hill, it’s about the people having a vote and voice,” Hill said. “Their voice and vote matters, and I think the people are going to address it in a lot of different ways. The referendum and who they’re going to elect to represent them are some of those ways.”
Lain, who spoke after Hill, said she didn’t understand why SF104 was even necessary after all the good work done by Hill.
“I know Cindy to be a woman of really strong feelings, strong integrity, and deep knowledge about how education works at the classroom, school and district levels, so I don’t see why we need SF104 when Cindy was making good and important changes,” she said.
Lain said a positive side to SF104 was that it caused people to want to become more informed on what was going on in their state education system.
“If it makes all of us as Wyoming citizens more knowledgable and we read more about it and get more involved in our government, then it can be a good thing in a way,” she said. “That’s what we’re all about is trying to be good American citizens.”
Young, who was the last speaker at the Platte Valley Community Center, also gave her opinion on SF104.
“I believe SF104 is a restructuring of our government as a bid to centralize our government more, and a bid for federalization of our education,” she said. “It’s also gross overreaching of power by the legislature. They stripped the duties from our current superintendent and anyone after, and funneled those duties into a director or bureaucrat that is appointed by and answerable to the governor.”
Here in the Platte Valley, residents Jen Maskell, Carl and Carol Lee, Rusty Rogers among others have set up petition stations around the Platte Valley for supporters to sign.
“I am urging people statewide to sign the petition to get that on the ballot, so that the people can vote for it,” Haynes said. “Someone once asked me ‘What if the people vote to keep Senate File 104?’ and I say so be it because the people have spoken and that what needs to happen. If that bill passed as a constitutional amendment to be voted on in 2014, I wouldn’t be fighting against it and there would be no need for a referendum.”
By May 28 the state of Wyoming needs to have its 37,606 signatures, with Carbon County needing 2,000. The number of signatures each county needs to have is proportioned by county population.
“We’re lucky that local businesses have allowed us to be in front of their establishments with the petition to sign,” Maskell said. “We’ve had some pretty good success. We currently have around 900 signatures for Carbon County.”
Petition stations are located at both Shively Hardware locations, Family Dollar, the Saratoga Library, the Encampment Library, Aspen Sky Merchants. To find out about current or upcoming petition stations, contact Jen Maskell at 307-321-1260 or Carl Lee at 307-327-5568.
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