Wyoming Legislative Report - January 11 - KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, Sports

Wyoming Legislative Report - January 11

The Senate Education Committee has endorsed a bill to drastically reduce the administrative role of Wyoming's top state public schools official. The panel approved Senate File 104 by unanimous vote Friday in Cheyenne.

Senate File 104, which is slated to hit the Senate floor Monday, would remove the Superintendent of Public Instruction as Head of the State of Education Department. It would create a new director of the agency who would be appointed by the Governor.

The appointee would be one of three names selected by the state Board of Education.

Both Education Committee Chairmen say the bill stems from the ongoing friction, going all the way back to 1985 between the Education Department, the superintendent, the Board of Education and the Legislature. Superintendent Cindy Hill spoke against the bill, saying it would take away the voice of the people who elected her and replace it with a bureaucrat. She says if a change needs to be made it should be made by the people of Wyoming in the form of an amendment to the state constitution. The bill would call for the Governor to appoint an interim Director of Education immediately at the signing of the bill and appoint a permanent director no later than December 1, 2013.

Energy is Wyoming's number one cash generator. Specifically coal, natural gas and oil. We asked the Petroleum Association's Bruce Hinchey what's going on today in the energy patch. Hinchey says natural gas prices will probably stay flat until 2014.