Writing in his weekly Denver Post column, leading local conservative commentator Mike Rosen cited research tabulated by the Education Policy Center’s senior policy analyst to show the large-scale changes in Colorado K-12 funding over the last decade:
Complaints that public education spending in Colorado has been slashed in recent years conveniently ignore the big picture. Ben DeGrow at the Independence Institute reports that total annual expenditures on K-12, adjusted for inflation, from 1999 to 2010 have increased by $3.2 billion or 46 percent. Per pupil spending is up 24 percent. There’s little to show for it in the way of results. [emphasis added]
Rosen also mentioned Ben DeGrow’s contributions on his morning 850 KOA talk show, with the largest audience in the state. Both discussions were in the context of statewide ballot issue Proposition 103, a tax increase estimated to kill more than 11,000 Colorado jobs.
