You know that feeling when you’re at the top of a roller coaster and start to make the drop, and your stomach feels like it’s in your throat? Some of us love it, some of us hate it, some of us scream and some of us throw up.

But most of us can’t do it repeatedly — we ride for a while and then have to move on to other activities that don’t leave us pale, dizzy and with our stomach floating around.

That’s the sensation I have when thinking of Wyoming’s current education funding shortfall and the way our legislature chooses to deal with it. 

My husband and I were just two of many from around Wyoming who traveled to Rock Springs Junior High on Aug. 14, to attend a school finance recalibration public meeting. My hope was that the speaking public would be heard by our legislators, as I have been told that parent involvement in the select committee meetings has been woefully lacking. I am afraid I was sorely disappointed. 

While I did see some legislators in attendance, the meeting was conducted by representatives of the consulting group hired by the state to look into education funding. I would like to know why Wyoming’s government seems to love to pay exorbitant sums to outside consultants to tell us what we already know, but that’s another topic for another day. 

Speaker after speaker took to the microphone to express support for public education and concern about the draconian cuts that some legislators have proposed. One mother stood up and said she was raising her hand to let legislators know that she was willing to have her taxes raised in order to fully fund education. My suspicion is that other parents would do the same. 

This suspicion was recently confirmed when the Wyoming Education Association released results of a poll of Wyoming residents about this very topic. A full two-thirds of those polled said they would be willing to pay higher taxes if the funds were dedicated to K-12 education. After reading these results validating what I suspected to be the case, I felt compelled to share a few thoughts. 

There is a cliché that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. If that is true, then our legislature is flat-out crazy. 

Our continued over-reliance on energy industry severance taxes has ensured that our citizens have to ride the roller coaster of boom-and-bust economic cycles to the point that we’re like those poor folks vomiting in garbage cans in amusement parks. Yet our legislators stubbornly insist on remaining in the car with their hands in the air yelling wwwhheeee while the rest of us white-knuckle it behind them. 

It’s time to get off the roller coaster and grow up. 

Wyoming’s Constitution requires that a complete and uniform system of education be maintained and funded. The legislature continually cutting public education and considering changes to the so-called “basket of goods” of curriculum implies that the definition of “complete” varies dependent upon revenues. 

No, it doesn’t. 

I’m a Wyoming native. I happened to be enrolled in Evanston schools largely during a time when oil revenues were in the “boom” phase. We built fantastic new schools and had wonderful programs from which I was able to benefit. 

Now I have kids in the Wyoming school system. They shouldn’t bear the burden of our legislature failing to really recognize the way in which our economic cycles negatively impact education in the state.

Sure, they pay lip service to this economic reality regularly, but if they really, genuinely, recognized it, they would actually do something about it. 

I’ve heard tell of legislators saying that if they raise taxes to cover the funding shortfall, they would be kicked out of office. 

Guess what — being a Wyoming state legislator is not, and should not be, a long-term appointment. You’re there to make tough choices and deal with it when you have to make unpalatable votes. Being re-elected should not be your primary motivation when you hold a public office. Presumably you ran for office in the first place because you wanted to do some good. 

I’m a mom. So in typical mom fashion, I have to be the adult and tell the kids when it’s time to get off the roller coaster. For their own good. Like it or not. 

I’m going to carry that over to our state legislature now. It’s time to get off the roller coaster. Our kids deserve better than to be on the chopping block every time the fossil fuel energy sector bottoms out. Please, raise my taxes to properly fund education.

It’s OK. It’s for our own good. Like it or not.