Opinion ID: 2524503
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Vocational Education

Text: [ถ 85] No adjustment is made for the admittedly higher costs of educating vocational students. The state contends those costs are contained within the assumptions in the model for numbers of teachers and costs of equipment and supplies. However, those amounts were based on statewide average expenditures, which necessarily resulted in penalizing schools with extensive vocational programs. Moreover, the trial court determined in its 1997 order: There are higher costs associated with the provision of vocational and technical training in Wyoming schools, and there is no provision in the prototypical models for funding those higher costs. However, without any change in the model to adjust for vocational and technical training, the trial court upheld the absence of a vocational adjustment in its 1999 order. We reverse the trial court's 1999 holding as being clearly erroneous and base our conclusion on the record evidence from both the 1997 and 1999 trials which is consistent with the trial court's 1997 findings. [ถ 86] The elimination of disparities required by Campbell did not anticipate the reduction in existing programs. Vocational and technical training is included in the legislature's basket of educational goods and services. MAP has admitted [i]t is generally accepted in the education community that vocational education is more expensive to provide than other forms of instruction. What has traditionally made vocational education more costly than academic education are relatively smaller classes and the need for more costly equipment and supplies. We hold that, in order to provide vocational and technical training, the actual costs of providing vocational teachers and equipment must be examined, included as a line item in the MAP model, and funded accordingly. These changes shall be implemented on or before July 1, 2002.