After Medicaid mess, don't trust GOP to fund public schools
Wyoming’s Legislature has a bad habit of blowing big decisions. And as with any addiction, denial is a key part of the problem. When it comes time to own up to the consequences of their habits, our legislators instead double down on the next issue, hoping it might divert attention from their failures.
It’s like a Jedi mind trick: “This is not the legislative trainwreck you’re looking for. You can go about your business.”
We simply can’t afford the denial or the magical thinking anymore.
Last week Gov. Matt Mead reminded us that the past is prologue. If the five-year debacle that ended with the defeat of Medicaid expansion was just the lead-in, I’d rather not discover what the authors of Wyoming’s future have in mind for education funding. The Legislature may just make quality schools disappear right before our eyes.
In Mead’s Aug. 27 interview with the Casper Star-Tribune, reporter Seth Klamann described him as “lamenting” how Wyoming trampled Medicaid expansion. “I’m not going back in time, but when you’re turning away $100 million a year as a state because you don’t want to be part of the [Affordable Care Act], I mean, it’s a problem,” the governor said.
Read more: http://www.wyofile.com/column/medicaid-mess-dont-trust-gop-fund-public-schools/