Ignore Balow's cheerleading. The numbers show Wyoming schools have a lot of work left to do.

BY D. REED ECKHARDT

Once again the pom-pons and bunting are safely stored away. It will be a year before the Wyoming Department of Education will need them again.

Similarly, the banner has been carefully folded and put into its box. It reads, “Wyoming: 6th Best Schools In America!” The number can be altered from year to year, but the “6” is big and bold this year.

Head cheerleader

Jillian Balow, the state’s superintendent of education, is hanging up her cheerleader’s skirt and sweater. The latter is brown and gold, of course, with a large WDE across the front. And don’t forget the cowboy and bucking bronc.

Balow has done her job for the year. She has announced that Wyoming’s schools are among the best in nation, according to the national Quality Counts report. The complacent media reported it; their listeners and readers are pleased. And all is right with the world.

Problem is, even the best cheerleaders can shout out for a mediocre team. Their job is to fire up the crowd, not tell the moms and dads that “their boys” or “their girls” will soon get crushed on the field of play.

Here’s the deal: If you think Wyoming has the sixth-best schools in America, you are swallowing the politicians’ line of bull manure. Balow knows that; so do all the other legislators and school board members and superintendents who tell the masses how great Wyoming kids are doing in school. If they can cheer and beat the air and wave some small portion of a report around to capture the voters’ attention, they will not be forced to do their jobs.

There is nothing in the Quality Counts 2019 report that says the Cowboy State’s schools are performing at nation-leading levels. Nothing. Look inside the numbers. 

There is only one reason Wyoming ranks so highly: That is because it spends more on its educational system than any other state in the nation. That gets in an “A” grade from Quality Counts in the area of finances, and that lifts Wyoming’s overall grade and puts it at No. 6. The numbers in the other categories are nowhere near so good.

Consider that in K-12 achievement, Quality Counts ranks Wyoming as only 12th, earning it the same average “C” grade as the rest of the nation. And it is 29th in the category of “chance for success,” a basket of family, school and socioeconomic factors that indicate how well young people are prepared to perform in school. This also rates a “C.” 

So it is only the amount of money that Wyoming spends on its schools that gives it the final ranking. You might think that Balow and others, like the Legislature, which also will trumpet this No. 6 ranking, might wonder why Wyoming is No. 1 in spending and 12th in education achievement. But no, that would lift the rosy spotlight off the news and admit that this state’s schools and students still have a lot of work to do.

You doubt that? Then dig even deeper.

Take a look at the state’s ACT scores. Last year, Wyoming posted an average composite score of 20. The national average was 20.8. That means the Cowboy State’s students are not even performing at the national average, much less No. 6 in the nation.

The excuse for this poor performance, always parroted by Balow and

others, is that Wyoming tests all of its students as part of the preparation

for the Hathaway Scholarship Program. Other states don’t test “lesser performing students.” But shouldn’t Wyoming be preparing all of its students for success, given it spending levels? And it not, why not?

Again, dig deeper.

ACT also measures the number of students in a state who are prepared to handle college class work. Here we go for Wyoming:

            -- 55 percent, the number of students prepared to handle college English.

            -- 41 percent, those prepared for college-level reading.

-- 33 percent, those ready for college math.

-- 33 percent, those set for college science.

These numbers should offend you, whether you are a Wyoming taxpayer or parent

Here's the map of the overall scores for Quality Counts 2019.

or voter or politician. Only one-third of the students are prepared math and science? Not even half are ready to read in college? In a state that spends top dollar in education funding? 

That the state superintendent of education would mislead the taxpayers about the quality of Wyoming’s education is a scandal. That it is abetted by the lazy media, who simply report what is said and never challenge a word of it, and the politicians, who are afraid to force the system to do better, is an equal scandal.

How much better would it have been if Balow has spoken up about Quality Counts not as a cheerleader but rather as a leader who wants Wyoming schools to be truly great. Why not challenge schools and superintendents and school boards and legislators to do better by this state’s young people? Why not urge moms and dads to demand that their local school boards produce or step aside?
            Why? Because fixing this system would take real work, real change and real pain. Besides, admitting that things aren’t as well as they seem might cost you your high-paying job at the next election. 

So the answer to that is obvious: Put on the cheerleader outfit and do it all over it again next year.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.