Senate panel passes education reform bills

The Senate Education Committee has endorsed two bills that would put Wyoming's ambitious education reform effort back on track. The panel approved House bills 72 and 91 on Monday, sending both measures to the full Senate for debate. The bills deal with the effort to bring more accountability to Wyoming's K-12 education system that lawmakers have been working on for several years now. However, lawmakers say parts of the effort that were supposed to be done by now weren't completed because the Wyoming Department of Education failed to do its job over the last year. The Legislature removed state schools Superintendent Cindy Hill from heading up the agency, and lawmakers say the accountability effort can now resume although some aspects will be delayed.