A new Education Policy Center issue backgrounder shedding light on Colorado’s major local school tax elections has garnered media attention. In a new an American Family Radio News (One News Now) report, senior policy analyst Ben DeGrow told reporter Bob Kellogg that local budgets in major school districts seeking tax hikes have done better than household earnings:

“What we see is that even in this very difficult period of recession and slowdown to revenue growth, even in that time, most of these districts are actually bringing in a little bit more money per student than they were before,” DeGrow reports. “So it’s not a sustainable pattern, and it’s time to look at how the money’s being spent.”

The comparison comes from DeGrow’s 2-page September report “Colorado K-12 Tax Hikes Challenged: Economy Squeezes Household Incomes Harder Than School Budgets,” built on an analysis of state education and federal census data. The brief publication has been cited by Ed News Colorado and Jefferson County Students First Action.