Representative Scott Heiner (R-Green River) called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Monday, February 9 on what is the opening day of the 2026 Wyoming Legislative Session. Rep. Heiner, who’s district covers southern Lincoln County, is the House Majority Floor Leader and also chairs the Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration and the House Minerals, Business & Economic Development Committee.

Rep. Heiner spent time discussing the agenda for the opening day, the recalibration bill and abortion legislation.

(0:00) Joining me live over the phone right now this morning is House Majority Floor Leader (0:04) Representative Scott Heider from House District 18. Representative Heider, (0:08) as the legislative preview session begins today. Representative, good morning.

How are you today? (0:14) Good morning, Duke. I’m doing fabulous. Thank you for giving me time to be on the radio with you.

(0:18) Absolutely. Appreciate your time as always. And we’ll touch base with you and our other (0:21) local legislators throughout the session, which begins today with the State of the State from (0:27) the Governor.

And so, Representative, as the House Majority Floor Leader, kind of walk us through the (0:33) schedule today as the session kicks off. Well, my day started with the first meeting at 6 a.m., (0:39) Duke. So, we’ve got an early start as we got together with the Chairman and talked about some (0:44) of the priorities.

But we have mandatory training at 8 o’clock. And then we’re going to go through (0:52) some training on the recalibration bill with all the legislators. And then at 10 o’clock, (0:57) we have the State of the State with the Governor and the Chief Justice and all the ceremonies that (1:05) go along with that.

That’ll last until about noon. And then we’ll have a break until 2. And at 2 (1:12) o’clock, we’ll officially gavel in for the business of the session. All right.

And, Duke, it’s very (1:18) likely we’ll go late tonight. I’m anticipating going to 8 or 9 o’clock tonight because we’ve (1:25) got a lot to do in 20 short days. This is a budget session by Constitution.

We can only have 20 days (1:30) of session. And our priority is the budget, of course. But we’ve also got a lot of other bills (1:37) and issues that we need to deal with.

So, we’re going to try and do it all, which means some (1:42) long days and a lot of work during that time. Absolutely. You mentioned recalibration.

That’s (1:49) been a real hot topic. You chair the select committee on school finance recalibration. So, (1:53) let’s start with that.

I’ll just leave it up to you. Give us your thoughts right now on (1:57) recalibration and the bill. So, recalibration is constitutionally required every five years.

(2:04) It hasn’t been done for the past 15 years. So, it’s very important that we get it done now. So, (2:10) we’ve been working on it all summer long.

And just to give you some information for Lincoln (2:15) County, Lincoln County number one with the recalibration bill that we’re going to be (2:21) talking about these next few days, they’ll receive about $1.1 million more than they have (2:29) previously in the first year and $1.3 million next year. So, that’s a 13% increase for Lincoln (2:38) County number one. And in Afton, the first year, they’ll receive $1.3 million more.

And next year, (2:46) they’ll receive $2.6 million more. So, it’s an increase in funding. The regional cost adjustment, (2:54) of course, we have to allow for the increased cost of living for different areas.

And Lincoln (3:01) County is one that has a higher cost of living. So, that bumps everything up by about 13% or 14%. (3:08) There in Lincoln County because of the high cost of housing.

And as you well are aware, (3:14) it costs more money there. So. Yeah, absolutely.

Representative, I did want to bring up some of (3:22) the concerns I’m sure you’ve heard. Well, you have heard. And we’ve had other legislators and (3:29) educators in talk about the recalibration.

One of the concerns has been the class size. (3:34) And maybe speak to that. Does recalibration call for an increased class size? (3:40) Well, yes.

We had some professionals that helped us on this. We had 21 people from across the (3:46) nation that helped us with this recalibration. And they said the model of 1950 where you had (3:52) one teacher in front of a class of students is fast.

That model has changed now. The best and (3:59) most efficient manner of educating is to have more adults in the classroom. (4:05) And they’re recommending two to three adults in a classroom now.

Slightly larger class size. (4:11) Just by a few more students. But having more adults in the classroom.

So, what they’re recommending (4:17) is one adult per seven and a half students. So, in a classroom with 15 students, you have two adults. (4:27) A classroom with 21 students, you have three adults.

And so, that’s what we’re going with (4:33) with this recalibration. So, that you have multiple adults. You’ll have more tutors, (4:39) more paraprofessionals, more instructional aides.

And so, the teacher can be more effective as that (4:47) teacher is teaching. And you have tutors right in the room there with the students. So, you have (4:53) one adult for every seven and a half students.

So, they’re saying that these experts said this (4:59) is a more effective and better education model than what we’ve used back when I was growing up (5:05) in the 1960s. So, where we just had one teacher. Representative, another thing that’s come up with (5:11) the recalibration is the health insurance.

And there’s been some concerns expressed that the (5:18) would take away local control from school boards. And that it would require school districts to go (5:25) to the state health plan. Which, if I’m understanding correctly, very few do.

If just (5:30) one or two around the entire state. And their concerns that it takes away local control and (5:37) gives that to the state. What are your thoughts there? So, the state insurance is a very good (5:44) insurance policy.

If you talk to anyone that is on the state insurance, you’ll find out (5:49) that it is one of the best insurance policies out there. It’s in network all across the (5:55) Wasatch Front. And in Idaho, we checked that out.

But what one of the main drivers was is we want to (6:01) provide medical insurance for part-time workers. Right now, most school districts only provide (6:08) insurance to those that work 30 hors or more per week. With the state insurance, anybody that (6:15) works 20 hours or more a week would be eligible for medical insurance.

So, bus drivers, food service (6:23) workers, part-time custodial people, they will be eligible for medical insurance. And that was (6:29) one of the main reasons is to get more insurance for the people. I know there’s a lot of bus (6:34) drivers that drive bus just so they can have health insurance.

This will make it so that they (6:40) can do that, be a bus driver and have health insurance under the state policy, which is a (6:45) very good policy. Again, Representative Scott Hiner on the Weekday Wakeup. Anything else on (6:50) recalibration you’d like to mention, Representative? No, let’s go on to right to life, if we can, (6:57) Duke.

Sure. The Supreme Court, of course, struck down all of our right to life bills that we’ve (7:08) passed over the past three years. So now, Wyoming is one of the most liberal states for abortion (7:15) in the United States.

There is no restrictions whatsoever for abortion. You can have an (7:21) abortion up to the day the baby is born. Legally do that.

We’re on even with North Korea and China (7:31) now for abortion. There is no restrictions whatsoever. So this morning, we had a prayer (7:38) in front of the Supreme Court.

We had probably about 80 people there where we met in front of (7:44) the Supreme Court building and had prayers. Because, you know, the legislature does not (7:51) define, does not create life. The Supreme Court doesn’t create life.

That’s a God-given (7:57) right to life. And these unborn are not able to speak for themselves. (8:05) That’s what our Constitution is for, is to protect those that don’t have a voice.

(8:10) Protect the life of these infants before they’re born. So we’re strategizing. We had a lot of (8:18) meetings last week and yesterday, working with some other legislators, clergy, some professionals (8:28) trying to strategize what we do next to try to bring back some structure to protect life.

(8:36) And that’s a big thing right now. We’ve got a lot of bills coming forward in this legislative (8:41) session. A lot of ideas how we can protect the unborn.

But that’s something that we need to (8:48) work on. It’s not a fight that we’re done with, and it looks like we’re going to have to continue (8:53) fighting for the unborn. Representative Scott Hiner this morning on the Weekday Wakeup.

(8:59) Representative, appreciate your time as always. Anything else you’d like to mention today while (9:02) we have you? I just, Duke, it’s an honor to be able to serve in the legislature on the 250th (9:10) anniversary of this nation. What a great nation we live in.

What a great state we live in. And (9:16) it’s just an honor to be here to represent the people of Wyoming. And I appreciate that (9:21) opportunity.

House Majority Floor Leader Representative Scott Hiner this morning. (9:25) Legislative session begins today. And Representative, thank you very much.

We’ll (9:30) touch base with you again throughout the session. All right. Thank you, Duke.

(9:34) It’s all part of the Weekday Wakeup this morning on SVI Radio.