Wyoming Supreme Court Clears Way for School Voucher Program After Overturning Injunction
Why It Matters
Wyoming families who applied for the state’s universal school voucher program — some waiting nearly a year — will now have a path to receive public funding for private education costs after the state’s highest court unanimously reversed a lower court order that had frozen the program in place.
The decision has implications across the Mountain West, where multiple states are weighing or defending similar school choice programs. It also arrives as national debate over the use of public funds for private education continues to intensify.
What Happened
The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Laramie County district judge was wrong to issue a preliminary injunction last June blocking distribution of funds under the state’s Steamboat Legacy Scholarship program. The ruling was unanimous.
Chief Justice Lynne Boomgaarden authored the opinion, finding that the parents challenging the program had not demonstrated they would suffer direct, irreparable personal harm if the state began releasing education savings account dollars — a necessary legal threshold for a preliminary injunction to stand.
The injunction had barred Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder and other state officials from sending money to participating families. The Supreme Court reversed that order and sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.
Degenfelder said the Wyoming Department of Education would immediately reopen the voucher program to applicants. “This is a big win for Wyoming families and students who will enjoy expanded academic freedom and school choice,” she said in a public statement.
By the Numbers
- Approximately 4,000 Wyoming families had applied for the program before the injunction halted it.
- The scholarship provides $7,000 per child in public funds for private education expenses, including tuition and tutoring.
- There is no income cap on eligibility — any Wyoming family can apply regardless of household earnings.
- Opponents note that more than 95 percent of Wyoming students attend public schools, which they argue bear the financial burden of the voucher program.
The Legal Question on Standing
The plaintiffs include parents of children with disabilities and parents of children who identify as transgender or non-binary, who argued private schools receiving public money could legally turn away their kids. The Supreme Court found that argument legally insufficient for blocking the program — because those families had not removed their children from public schools and did not intend to do so.
“Their claim of possible irreparable injury rests on the existence of policies they have not and do not intend to encounter,” Boomgaarden wrote.
The Wyoming Education Association, which represents teachers and other school employees in the state, is among the challengers. The group said Thursday the ruling allows public dollars to flow to private institutions in what it views as a conflict with the Wyoming Constitution, and warned that public school programs including athletics, arts, and nutrition services are already strained.
Constitutional Fight Continues
Thursday’s ruling did not settle the underlying constitutional dispute. The court made clear it has not reached a final position on whether the voucher program violates Wyoming’s constitution, which the plaintiffs argue requires education funding to be uniform and bars public money from flowing to private entities beyond narrow exceptions.
The justices did, however, raise questions about portions of the lower court’s legal reasoning. The Supreme Court noted that education savings account funding draws from the state’s general fund — not the school finance model or the permanent school fund — a distinction that could shape future rulings on the constitutional claims.
The broader legal challenge remains active and will now proceed at the district court level. Chief Chief Justice John Roberts has separately defended judicial institutions against accusations of partisan decision-making, a backdrop that adds context to high-stakes state court rulings on politically charged education policy.
What’s Next
Wyoming’s education department is expected to announce a new application window for the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship for the coming school year. The constitutional merits of the program will continue to be litigated in district court. Other state supreme courts have also faced high-profile battles over education and taxation policy, reflecting a broader national trend of state-level legal challenges to school choice and fiscal legislation.
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