The following offers highlights of the recent legislative session. Precollegiate enrollment figures are based on fall 2006 data reported by state officials for public elementary and secondary schools. The figures for precollegiate education spending do not include federal flow-through funds, unless noted.
Wyoming
By the 2010-11 school year, Wyoming high school students will have to choose one of four different curriculum tracks to qualify for the Hathaway Scholarship, which provides up to $1,600 a semester for students to attend a state college or university.
The Hathaway Success Curriculum, approved by state lawmakers during the legislative session that ended March 1, offers more money to students based on the rigor of their studies.
| |
| Senate: | |
| House: 17 Democrats 43 Republicans | |
| Enrollment: 84,611 |
Students applying for the largest and most rigorous of the scholarships, $1,600-per-semester “honor scholarship,” must have at least a 3.5 grade point average and take four years of mathematics, language arts, and science, three years of social studies, and two years of a foreign language.
The smaller scholarships have less rigorous demands. For example, an award of $800 per semester can be earned by those taking the “career” curriculum. It requires at least a 2.5 grade point average and three years of math, social studies, and science, and four years of language arts. The changes will be phased in beginning with the high school freshman class of 2008.
In-state tuition and fees for a 12-credit-hour semester load at the University of Wyoming, the minimum to be considered a full-time student, is $1,475.
The legislature also voted to add $66 million to the $1.1 billion that already had been approved for school districts for fiscal 2007-08, the second year of the budget biennium. In addition, the lawmakers chose to set aside $104 million for school construction and major maintenance, bringing the total spent for that purpose since 2002 to $940 million.
See other stories on education issues in Wyoming. See data on Wyoming’s public school system.
For more stories on this topic see College and Careers.
