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Distance Education Courses At WY Community Colleges To Get Equal State Funding
Published
2 years agoon
Distance education courses that are offered at Wyoming Community Colleges will now get treated equally in terms of the colleges receiving state funding.
During the recent Wyoming Legislative session, House Bill 29 was passed that allows distance education courses to be treated equally as other courses, when it comes to funding, thus the amount provided to the college will depend on the content of the course.
Governor Gordon signed that bill into law about 2 weeks ago.
Sheridan College President Dr. Walter Tribley says before the law was passed, it seemed that a college’s finance department was being penalized for offering distance education, and the new law fixes that problem.
“Our funding formula pays us more for the expensive classes, and a little less for those less expensive classes, but it should not have a pay differential for what modality do you use to teach it. Face to face, Zoom, TV, on-line, hybrid. We must offer opportunities to our people who may not live right next door to bricks and mortar of a college.”
Governor Gordon also signed into law, House Bill 28 which raises the minimum cost of community college construction projects, which require approval from the Wyoming Community College Commission, from $100,000 to $250,000.