Wyoming’s seven community colleges have developed into an integral part of the state’s education system. Operating under the control of the Wyoming Community College Commission, they bring academic and vocational education opportunities to people who would otherwise be unable to pursue an education beyond the high school level.

While the colleges are a part of state government through the Wyoming Community College Commission, their everyday operations are guided by local boards of trustees which work to insure that each institution responds to the specific needs of constituents in the area they serve.

The colleges are funded through local tax levies with supplemental funding from the state general fund. As the number of students served by the colleges has increased,so has the level of state support. One of the critical issues faced by the legislature and the colleges in the last fifteen years is the question of how much state support should the colleges expect.Some legislators point to the fact that the colleges were founded under a system that called for them to operate almost completely with local funding.Those same legislators have expressed alarm over the fact that some of the colleges now receive as much as 75-80 percent of their operating funds from the state.The colleges, on the other hand, point to the fact that they now provide educational services to more students than the University of Wyoming,and that the students who use those services come from every area of Wyoming, not just the districts which provide tax support for the colleges.

Community College Commission