CASPER — Eliminating political bias in schools was the first of six initiatives Wyoming’s top education official laid out in her sweeping strategic plan for the Wyoming Department of Education released last week.
But Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder’s push to scratch politics from education has come under fire as she also looks to take action on the conservative priorities that she campaigned on.
Among the goals Degenfelder identified in her strategic plan were establishing model policies for age-appropriate access to library books and advancing “a public commitment to ensuring divisive and inappropriate concepts like Critical Race Theory are not being taught.”
Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, questioned Degenfelder’s commitment to removing political bias from schools during Tuesday’s Joint Education Committee meeting, pointing to her plan’s direct reference to educational issues that have become a rallying point for Wyoming Republicans.
“There shouldn’t be political bias in schools. There should be an objective marketplace of ideas,” Rothfuss said. “But then looking through the [strategic plan’s] goals I have some concern regarding for example ‘develop a public commitment to ensuring divisive and inappropriate concepts like critical race theory are not being taught,’ which honestly, as a first approximation, is effectively an expression of political bias.”
Rothfuss laid out a case that Degenfelder’s push to remove political bias from schools is actually interjecting politics further into education.
Simply identifying what are “divisive and inappropriate concepts” is a political act, Rothfuss said. “The aspiration is a solid aspiration, but how do we get to the point where even in the guiding principles there is political difference and there would be political disagreement?” he said.
Degenfelder argued that the Department of Education would address political bias by creating more transparency within Wyoming’s K-12 education system and by bringing more parents into the fold to engage in their children’s education.
Each of Degenfelder’s six initiatives will also have a cabinet with teachers, students, parents, education leaders and industry representatives and run by Department of Education leadership. She said that the cabinets would help to define political bias and terms like divisive and inappropriate, while the Department of Education would work with school districts “to push back against political agendas in the classroom.”
“For me, political agendas of any kind do not belong in the classroom. If we do, of any kind, our education system fails,” she said.
Degenfelder has leaned into Republican priorities on the campaign trail and in her short time as the state’s top education leader. She campaigned on themes like “parental empowerment,” school choice and removing the government from classrooms, promises that she told the education panel she was looking to make good on.
She was also an advocate for Evanston Republican Sen. Wendy Schuler’s transgender athlete bill that barred transgender girls in school sports.
Last week she joined a letter with other education officials from Florida and North Carolina calling for the Biden administration to abandon a proposed rule that could nullify Wyoming’s blanket ban on transgender athletes.
At the same time, school boards, administrators and teachers have faced growing pressure from parents and lawmakers who have fought against books and learning materials they consider inappropriate for public education.
In Natrona County, school board meetings have become increasingly contentious as political hot points like gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion make their way into local education discussions.
Lawmakers have also sought to ban the teaching of critical race theory in Wyoming even though it isn’t taught in schools, a fact that board members, administrators and teachers across the state have confirmed.
Degenfelder told lawmakers that the Department of Education was prepared to take on difficult topics in its efforts to combat politics in education.
However, Rothfuss pushed back, saying Degenfelder’s labeling of critical race theory as a controversial issue in her strategic plan was “intrinsically politically biased.”
He asked that she and the Department of Education listen to more than the state’s Republican majority to avoid reinforcing political bias and inserting politics further into schools.
Degenfelder said that she was willing to meet with anyone no matter their views while defending her strategic plan.
“We’ll work through these together,” she said. “For me it’s delivering on what I promised on the campaign trail and making sure that we move forward on those concerns.”’
