In 2025, Wyoming passed the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, a policy designed to expand school choice in Wyoming. Wyoming was among a surge of states rapidly passing major school choice policy, which have created widely expansive vouchers for students attending private schools or alternatively educating their children. The law was passed in 2025, yet parents attempting to access the scholarship say the money isn’t flowing. On top of that, the bill is wrapped in continuous legal challenges. So, what is the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Program, why has the rollout been so painful for Wyoming families, and what does this mean for homeschoolers across the nation?
What is the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act?
The Steamboat Legacy Scholarship can be described as a “universal educations savings account”. If you’d like to understand what an education savings account is in a deep dive, check out this article. Boiled down, this program is designed to give funds up to $7,000 per student, regardless of income, for private school tuition or other non-public school services like tutoring or homeschool supplies. There are many such programs like this getting rolled out across the country, and while all have unique rules and names, most are doing basically the same thing: providing funds directly to families to encourage and support homeschooling, private schooling, and most recently microschooling.
Last year when the state opened applications for the program, nearly 4,000 applicants signed up to receive the money for the 2025-2026 school year, with hundreds approved to receive funds. Seems like a clear cut process, right? Well, not so fast says parents actually experiencing the program. Many families were left in limbo, if they were approved for funds at all. Families even reported seeing funds deposited in their account and then disappearing the next day, appearing so late that they weren’t able to utilize the funds, or orders being canceled entirely. This caused confusion and disruption and has left families on edge as they plan for the upcoming school year.
Why the Choppy Rollout of the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act?
The passage of the Scholarship Act was controversial from the start. The bill garnered contentious debate over the constitutionality of the bill, with pushback coming from both constituents and policymakers. Even in Wyoming’s Republican-majority statehouse, the measure created ample tension as lawmakers grappled with whether it adhered to the state’s constitution, which makes public education a “paramount state commitment.”
Quickly following the passage of the law, opponents followed through on threats to sue. Despite the legal challenges, the legislature pushed for the program to roll out rapidly, but was abruptly halted when a district judge ordered an injunction.
The lawsuit was filed by the Wyoming Education Association and 9 Wyoming parents, who claim that the bill violates Article 7, Section 8 of the Wyoming constitution which reads: “Nor shall any portion of any public school fund ever be used to support or assist any private school, or any school, academy, seminary, college or other institution of learning controlled by any church or sectarian organization or religious denomination whatsoever.” A previous Wyoming Supreme Court ruling on education funding “found that ‘education is a fundamental right’ in Wyoming, that ‘all aspects of the school finance system are subject to strict scrutiny,’ and that ‘any state action interfering with [the right to equal educational opportunity] must be closely examined before it can be said to pass constitutional muster.’
Proponents of the program recently came into promising news, as the fate of the controversial law was signaled by the Wyoming Supreme Court, who recently lifted the injunction. They believe the funds are needed and helpful for homeschoolers and microschoolers, and provide a choice for schooling. Those who are against this bill, like public school teachers at the Wyoming Education Association, believe that the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship program violates Wyoming’s state Constitution by diverting public dollars to private education through voucher program work-arounds.
Homeschooling families have been caught in the middle of this rapid rollout and many are frustrated by the uncertainty that it has caused. With the lawsuit pending, the state is continuing to work to roll out the program for the 2026-2027 school year, with about 3400 families approved for funding for this year as of September 9th, 2026. Even with approvals rolling in, Wyoming families are holding their breath until payments have been fully finalized.
What Might This Mean for Homeschooling Nationally?
Wyoming is one of several states to have rapidly expanded its laws in the past few years to drive forward an Education Savings Account and pro-school-choice agenda. When legislation rolls out rapidly, opposition, rollout issues, and slower moving legal challenges are bound to follow for some states.
Wyoming may be a case study for what other states may find with rapid rollouts of Education Savings Accounts; a helpful caution for homeschooling families to closely monitor their state’s local political landscape and to create a backup budget during the first year(s) of an ESA rollout so that homeschooling families aren’t caught in a sticky situation when funds fall through.
As we saw in Connecticut, some backlash to the rapidly expanding homeschooling and School Choice policies may be coming.
As always, we will continue to provide simple, clear information on national homeschool news and policy changes. We update our blog weekly every Monday, so be sure to check back regularly for the latest homeschooling news, with practical insights for families.