Judge in school funding lawsuit found consultant showed ‘strong bias’
CHEYENNE — District Court Judge Peter Froelicher said one of Wyoming’s school finance consultants was exercising bias during witness testimony in a lawsuit against the state filed by the Wyoming Education Association in 2022.
In February, Froelicher ruled in favor of the Wyoming Education Association and the eight school districts that joined as plaintiffs, including Laramie County School District 1 and found that Wyoming has unconstitutionally underfunded its public school system.
The state has since appealed Froelicher’s ruling to the Wyoming Supreme Court.
In his decision, Froelicher found one of the school finance consultants hired by the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, Richard Seder, to be a biased witness during the trial. In a footnote, the judge clarified the court does not believe Seder “was fabricating or being intentionally deceptive. Instead, the Court found his opinions to be tainted or influenced by his biases.”
“(Seder) demonstrated a strong bias in support of his position that Wyoming is overfunding public schools and personnel are overpaid,” Froelicher wrote.
Seder has consulted for the state of Wyoming “on many issues involving school finance” since 2005. He provided guidance on the state’s funding model and consultant’s model for the last 20 years, according to documents.
The state Legislature uses the funding model to calculate funding for its K-12 public schools, which includes funding components for teacher and non-teacher salaries, energy costs and classroom supplies.
The consultant’s model is a separate calculation that sets the constitutional floor for public school funding. In other words, it sets the bare minimum for how much the state can fund its public schools without violating its own constitution.
The state has funded above the consultant’s model every school year from 2006 through 2020, with the exception of the 2018-19 school year. Since 2020, however, the state has increasingly funded below the consultant’s model, starting at a difference of $20.6 million in the 2020-21 school year.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle was unable to find a clear history of Seder’s involvement in the recalibration process outside of what’s stated in court documents. Deputy Attorney General of School Finance Litigation Mark Klaassen said he could not provide comment on Seder due to the ongoing lawsuit.
A Legislative Service Office staff member confirmed to the WTE that Seder will not be contracted or used for this year’s recalibration process of the funding model.
As a witness in the lawsuit, Seder said the state’s funding model creates “a ‘socialist utopia,’ and that Wyoming does not know what kind of ‘red state’ it is,” according to court documents.
“He, unreasonably, was unwilling to agree that there is a national teacher shortage, despite many witnesses, including several of the State’s witnesses, acknowledging the existence of a national teacher shortage,” Froelicher wrote.
Froelicher said Seder “repeatedly gave nonresponsive answers to straightforward questions” during cross-examination.
“For example, when asked whether the salaries set in the original model were based on two named experts, he answered ‘those analyses were done in 2001.’”
Froelicher concluded this demonstrated Seder’s “strong motivation to testify in support of the State’s actions and inactions because he was opining on much of the advice and guidance he provided to the state for 20 years.”
Other consultants’ diminished credibility
Froelicher also gave “diminished weight to some of ” the opinions expressed by two of Wyoming’s top school finance consultants, Christiana Stoddard and Lori Taylor Loden, both of whom have extended contracts with the state through June 30.
Since 2010, Stoddard has generated monitoring reports and labor market studies for teachers in Wyoming. According to court documents, Stoddard generated these reports for the state in 2010, 2015, 2020, 2022 and 2023.
In 2020, Stoddard told the Legislature that teachers are leaving their careers for new positions that pay less, “which suggests they are leaving teaching for reasons other than salary.” She still concluded, though, “Wyoming’s teacher pay, relative to other states, was not as strong as it had been.”
In 2022, Stoddard reported that exit rates for teachers close to retirement had risen significantly. In 2023, she found an increase in exit rates for teachers who are mid-career, which she said “was a concern.”
The 2023 report also found the ratio of teacher wages to comparable occupations in Wyoming “has consistently eroded over the last several years” and that “teaching salaries have remained flat for the past several years,” according to court documents.
Stoddard did not give an opinion as to whether teaching and non-teaching salaries in the funding model were sufficient to be competitive, according to court documents.
Taylor Loden was also hired by the state in 2010, 2015, 2022 and 2023 for guidance and/or to assist with recalibration. Her role included advising the state on recommended external cost adjustments to the funding model, according to court documents.
Taylor Loden did agree an ECA must be applied annually and cumulatively “to maintain the status quo,” according to court documents.
Froelicher said Stoddard’s and Taylor Loden’s “analyses about personnel salaries were based upon actual salaries being paid by school districts and were not based on the salaries used in the funding model.”
“To determine whether the Funding Model is accurately and reasonably estimating the cost of personnel salaries, Dr. Stoddard and Dr. Taylor should have used the Funding Model salaries in all their comparisons,” Froelicher wrote. “The Funding Model salaries, not actual salaries, are used to calculate the Funding Model’s salary component of each school district’s guarantee.”
In support of this statement, Froelicher said Stoddard agreed her opinions could change if she had based her analyses on the funding model weighted salaries.
“Regarding the constitutionality of salaries, this Court must determine whether the Funding Model is accurately estimating the cost of personnel salaries,” Froelicher wrote. “The school financing system cannot be constitutional if the estimate of teacher costs does not reflect the actual cost of the teachers necessary to deliver the basket of goods.”
Recalibration year
This year is a recalibration year of the state’s funding model. Froelicher ordered the state to modify its model “in manners consistent” with his order “to assure the school financing system … (is) constitutional.”
“The Court notes, because 2025 is a recalibration year, there is an excellent window of opportunity to address these issues,” Froelicher wrote in his decision.
The state conducts a recalibration process of its funding model every five years, but the state hasn’t adopted a recalibrated funding model since 2010. According to court documents, Seder has “provided significant guidance” on the funding and consultant models since 2005.
Consultants are charged with identifying the estimated cost to deliver Wyoming’s educational system and providing recommendations to add new components to the funding model. The Legislature’s Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration has a majority of new members this year, including new co-chairmen.
Co-chairman Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle the committee will hold closed meetings this week to discuss the ruling.
So far, the Legislature’s Management Council has only approved a renewed contract for Lawrence O. Picus & Associates to complete this year’s recalibration of the funding model.
During the 2020 recalibration, the Legislature considered pre-kindergarten, school resource officers and nutritional programs as additional components to its funding model, but none of these were adopted.
According to court documents, consultants did not recommend adding SROs or nutritional programs. They did recommend adding a component for elementary mental health counselors, but to also reduce pupil support.
Froelicher found the state is unconstitutionally noncompliant with its school finance system “by not including funding for elementary level mental health counselors, SROs, nutritional programs, and computers for every student,” according to court documents.
This story was published on April 24, 2025.