'We the People' gets $120,000 from state, but Gordon said this could be the last time

Apr. 11—CHEYENNE — Not everyone gets a piece of the cake when it comes to funding from the state — slices are limited and fought over by departments, agencies and other programs and services throughout Wyoming.

With issues like property taxes and accessible health care taking the front seat, some programs come up short on the Cowboy State's priority list — and an academic civics program is one of them.

There is a $120,000 allocation to fund "We the People," an academic civics competition that takes place in public schools across the country, in the 2025-26 biennial budget. However, Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed language to include this funding as a standard part of the budget.

He reasoned that these programs "fall outside the normal scope of state government." The line-item budget veto also applied to funding for Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom, humanities initiatives and Centennial Farm and Ranch programs.

"These programs are important, but do not necessarily need to be included in the immediately succeeding fiscal biennium," Gordon wrote in the letter. "Once again, I urge others to donate to these programs, enabling them to carry on independently in the future."

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder said in an emailed statement to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle these types of academic programs are important, and her office would continue to find ways to support them.

"We will continue to support these programs in any way we can at the state level, and in partnership with local districts," Degenfelder wrote. "Civics education and partnership with Wyoming industries are top priorities for me in my term, and we are working on several different ways to expand these efforts."

We the People State Coordinator Matt Strannigan told the WTE the governor's message didn't come as much of a surprise — funding at the state level was shaky from the start, he said.

"For the longest time, we knew we had to find other sources of funding," Strannigan said. "If you're waiting for the Legislature to take care of you, your days may be numbered."

With the $120,000 allocated from the budget, there's opportunity to expand the program to other schools, as well as fund trips for teams that qualified to compete at the national level. This would remove the burden of fundraising from teachers, he added, and let them focus on their primary role, which is to teach.

"These kids that are in We the People are getting an entirely different civics education than some of these other students," Strannigan said.

The biggest source of funding for this program is an endowment provided through the University of Wyoming, the state's sole four-year public institution. The John P. Ellbogen Foundation AHC Civics Education Excellence Fund, otherwise known as the Ellbogen Fund, supports both the civics program and Wyoming History Day.

UW Foundation spokesperson Tyler Spear said this fund is just one of several private funds administered and invested by the university that supports We the People.

"There are numerous supporters and several additional endowed funds, as well as some state matching funds, that support Wyoming We the People," Spear said in an email to the WTE. "This is above and beyond any state, federal, or grant support for the program."

The endowment was first started in June 2015 and has "seen significant growth since its inception," Spear said. It was originally intended to support teacher professional development, but, thanks to additional private support, some matching state funds and fundraisers, it has expanded to support the program as a whole.

"Our donors provide Wyoming We the People with the margin of excellence necessary to do their work in an exemplary fashion. In our eyes, they do just that!" Spear said in the email.

The endowment provides roughly $60,000 a year, Strannigan said, which allows the program to operate as is. However, he hopes to expand the civics programs to other schools in Wyoming, especially at the fifth-grade level. While the additional state funding for the new biennium is a huge plus, We the People representatives continue to search for other sources of funding. The program recently applied for the "Civics that Empowers All Students" federal grant, which identifies Title I schools, or schools that have at least 30% of an underserved population.

"We took Governor Gordon's remarks to heart," Strannigan said, adding that he recognized the difficult responsibility of the governor to prioritize certain programs over others. "We realize that if we stand back and wait for the handout, the handout may never come."

Hannah Shields is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's state government reporter. She can be reached at 307-633-3167 or hshields@wyomingnews.com. You can follow her on X @happyfeet004.