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What's on my mind this week: A few of you have asked me the same question. If you could only vote for the statewide school measure or your local one, which should you pick?

If you're not sure what the statewide measure even is, that's fair. It's called Proposition NN, and it wouldn't raise your tax rate.

It would let the state keep money it already collects, money that would otherwise come back to you as a TABOR refund, and spend it on schools.

It isn't my job to tell you how to vote, and I won't.

What I can do is help you see it clearly. So, for the past few months, while I've been reporting on school finance across five districts and how our state funds education, I've been building something on the side.

It's an interactive guide. You pick your district, enter your home’s value, and it shows you two things at once: what each question would cost you and what it would do for your schools.

Class Notes readers get it first, before it goes anywhere else.

Let's dig in.

Every Colorado voter will see a school funding question in November. Depending on where you live, you might see a local one too, and the local asks run from a few dollars per month to nothing at all.

The tool does the math for your household. Pick your district, enter your home value and flip each ballot question to yes or no, according to how you think you’d vote.

Two numbers move as you go: what you'd pay and what your schools would get.

Between the lines: Five districts, five different answers. Jeffco is asking for $135 million, and its board has already adopted a budget that hopes you'll say yes. Adams 12 voters already raised their property taxes last year. Weld RE-8 is trying to replace an expiring tax that funds teacher pay. Westminster and Brighton 27J aren't asking at all.

The backdrop: Nearly 9 in 10 Coloradans now call the rising cost of living a serious problem, up from 63% in 2020 (Colorado Health Foundation Pulse Poll). That's the mood every one of these tax questions walks into.

Why it matters: The decision shows up in two places you'll feel: your property tax bill and your child's classroom. Depending on your district, that's anywhere from about $9 a month to no new local tax at all.

What's next: Weld's board decides July 23 whether to put its measure on the ballot. Jeffco's board sets its final wording by August. Ballots mail in October, and Election Day is Nov. 3.

The bottom line: The tool doesn't tell you how to vote. It shows you what each answer costs and what it buys, so you can decide for yourself.

Jeffco readers can also look up their school and see the cut it took this year, all 119 of them.

45th. That's roughly where Colorado ranks among the states in the share of its wealth it invests in K-12 schools, according to Education Week's Quality Counts, even though it's one of the richest states in the country. By that measure and others, Colorado spends thousands less per student than it could, a gap it has run for about 30 years. That statewide shortfall is the through-line behind all five districts on this year's ballots, and the reason the choice of whether to make up the difference keeps landing on local voters.

Each link opens the tool to your district.

📍 Who's accountable for a school operating in Adams 12's backyard? The Everest Point program raises a question I'm working to answer: how much public money is flowing to a two-days-a-week program that no local district authorized, and who is watching how it's spent? Getting there meant a $147 records request to ERBOCES. I'm tracing the dollars and the oversight. More soon.

📍 Access to concurrent enrollment in Jeffco. I'm finishing my series on access to concurrent enrollment across seven Jeffco high schools, and I plan to publish in mid-August. Stay tuned.

Tried the tool? Hit reply and tell me what surprised you or if there’s something I missed!

Got a tip about your district's budget or ballot plans? Reply and let me know.

Class Notes is free because readers like you share it with people who need it. When you refer friends, you unlock tools I've built from covering five Front Range school districts:

🔓 3 referrals — CORA Request Template Kit (fill-in-the-blank public records requests)

Need to speak at a board meeting? Get "How to Give Public Comment That Gets Heard" →

I can't be everywhere, but you are. If something's happening in your district or school that doesn't add up, I want to hear about it. A policy that makes no sense. A budget line that vanished. A question no one will answer.

You can stay anonymous. I protect my sources.

If someone forwarded this to you, welcome. And thanks for reading! Want Class Notes in your inbox every Friday morning?

Class Notes is reported and written by Suzie Glassman for the Colorado Trust for Local News. I do the homework on your schools, so you don't have to.

WHY CLASS NOTES? Class Notes is your guide to the schools that matter to you, covering education across Jefferson, Adams and Weld counties. I don't just recap board meetings — I dig into budgets, policies and the decisions that affect your kids, your taxes and your community. The best part? It's FREE.

While district press releases give you the polished version, I file public records requests, sit through the meetings and talk to the parents and teachers living it. Class Notes gives you the reporting your local schools deserve, delivered every week.

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