McKeown: State government, not school district, is the problem with education

GILLETTE — A few weeks after ruffling some feathers with a comment about Wyoming students, Sen. Troy McKeown, R-Gillette, tried to clear the air Tuesday night during a meeting of the Campbell County School Board.

The Campbell County School District office building was packed with high-achieving high school students, including valedictorians, salutatorians, all-state athletes and musicians as well as multiple students across the district enrolled in dual-enrollment and college classes.

It was standing room only for parents, principals and many politically-engaged residents at the start of the meeting.

Celebrations subsided as the night went on. Then, after lengthy discussions about the school district’s mobile device policy, district rezoning and CCHS construction, the public comment period arrived and McKeown spoke.

He insisted that he was misquoted by the Gillette News Record and clarified that his issue isn’t with the Campbell County School District, but with the state as a whole.

“My issue is with administrations right now. All of them,” McKeown said. “When I spoke the other night (at the MAGA moments town hall), I spoke about all the administrations. I guess the newspaper only got the one comment.”

McKeown's visit to the school board comes after calling Wyoming students “dummies,” during the MAGA moments town hall, when he criticized the state for spending big on education and getting small test results compared to neighbors Utah and Idaho.

“As they do worse and worse and worse, the cost goes up and up and up and we brag, ‘Oh, we got brilliant children,’” he said that night. “We’re 2% ahead of Idaho, 1% ahead of Utah, but Utah spent about $12,000 per child. Idaho is about $14-15,000, we’re at 22 grand. We build the biggest dummies in the world.”

He also criticized CCSD Superintendent Alex Ayers during the town hall. But Tuesday night, he claimed not to have an issue with the CCSD administration.

“Our superintendent seems to have a lot of influence over the school board,” he said during the town hall. “He tells them what to do, and some of them don’t agree, but there’s enough of them who hope, ‘Yes, sir, please speak highly of me.’”

But McKeown turned to a more collaborative tone as he spoke Tuesday night.

“At the end of the day, we’re trying to help,” he said. “I probably could have used better words the other day, so I apologize for that, but it wasn’t about students. It was about the process.”

School district officials, including board Chair Lisa Durgin and Campbell County High School Principal Chad Bourgeois invited McKeown to talk more about recalibration ahead of the next legislative session and visit schools.

“I’d like to meet with you and the superintendent,” McKeown said. “I’d rather work with you than feeling like I’m working against you.”

“I’d love to,” Durgin said.

This story was published on April 16, 2026.