Matt Sparx
Matt Sparx is a radio host at K99 who uses the station’s digital platform to turn complex education stories into straightforward updates for a general audience. His recent work centers on how school funding decisions, staffing changes, and rankings affect everyday students and families rather than institutional players. He approaches education coverage as concise explainers and gallery-style pieces that fit naturally alongside his on-air role.
School Staffing Cuts and Budget Strain
One of Sparx’s key education pieces covers the Poudre School District’s decision to cut 181 staff positions ahead of the 2026–27 school year. He walks readers through the timeline, starting with the school board’s unanimous vote in February to authorize a reduction in force and the superintendent’s email warning of an $8 million funding drop.
The article breaks down the impact in clear numbers, noting the nonrenewal of more than 100 probationary licensed teachers and over 70 classified staff, and explaining that these were largely probationary teaching positions spread across the district. Sparx also highlights that some roles vacated by retirements or resignations went unfilled to help close the budget gap, showing how staffing changes extend beyond formal layoffs.
He closes the loop by outlining the district’s stated process for recalling staff if positions are reinstated, giving readers a practical sense of what could change and what is final.
In this coverage, Sparx emphasizes clarity over drama: he foregrounds specific counts, board actions, and contract status rather than emotional reaction. The focus stays on how budget constraints translate into fewer adults in classrooms and support roles, and what that means for the structure of the coming school year. This makes the piece useful to readers trying to understand how a technical budget decision directly affects schools, staffing, and student experience.
Colorado Education Rankings and Quality
Beyond local district decisions, Sparx writes about statewide education performance through the lens of national rankings.
In a piece on why Colorado did not make the top ten “best states to live” list, he pulls out education and health as the categories where the state performs strongest, noting that Colorado ranks third in that combined area. The story frames the ranking as both a point of pride and a benchmark, highlighting that education outcomes are a bright spot even when the overall placement is lower than residents might expect.
By singling out the education and health category, Sparx connects an abstract nationwide scorecard to the systems that directly affect schools and students.
His treatment of the ranking stays measured and factual, using the list as a hook to discuss strengths rather than launching into advocacy. The emphasis on education and health suggests a particular interest in how statewide systems shape quality of life, not just headline-friendly bragging rights.
For communications around education policy, this style - using rankings as context while returning to the underlying category performance - shows he is receptive to data-driven storylines.
College Selectivity and Pathways
Sparx’s education beat extends into higher education, where he explores college access and selectivity within the state.
In a piece identifying the hardest college in Colorado to get into, he points readers toward the most competitive institution and presents it as a standout case. The article is structured as a gallery, using visual elements and a clear headline to guide readers through why one college sits at the top of the selectivity list.
While the format is lighter than a budget explainer, the subject matter still sits firmly within education: who gets into which schools, and what that says about opportunity and prestige.
This kind of coverage bridges entertainment and information, making admissions competitiveness legible to a broad audience that may not follow higher education reporting closely. It indicates a willingness to handle stories that link K–12 pathways to postsecondary outcomes, even when the packaging is designed for quick consumption.
For education-focused outreach, this shows Sparx engages with the full pipeline from school districts to colleges, not just one end of it.
Radio Host with a News-Adjacent Digital Role
Sparx’s primary identity at K99 is as the host of The Ride Home, the station’s afternoon show that carries listeners through the second half of the workday and the commute.
His digital education stories sit alongside that role, giving him a dual presence as both on-air personality and explainer of local and statewide issues. The mix of formats - straightforward news pieces on school staffing, contextual takes on state rankings, and gallery articles on college selectivity - aligns with a station audience that expects accessible, quickly grasped information rather than deep policy analysis.
Across these pieces, Sparx favors plain language, short sections, and clear numeric details, mirroring the cadence of a radio host who needs to keep people engaged in brief segments.
His work tends to anchor education stories in concrete outcomes - jobs cut, rankings earned, colleges harder to enter - rather than abstract debates, which gives communicators a clear sense of the angles he is likely to find useful. Taken together, his coverage positions him as a local media voice who connects education decisions and metrics to everyday experience for listeners and readers of K99.
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Abril Preciado
Abril Preciado is an Emmy award-winning bilingual television journalist at FOX6 News Milwaukee who focuses on education, school crises and policy decisions affecting students, families and staff. She follows school communities over months, from emergency response through investigations, relocation plans and the first day back in class. Her reporting on the Lincoln Avenue School fire covers displacement, safety changes, rebuilding and the move to temporary space. She also uses public records to examine local officials, test official claims and connect government conduct to public trust. Before joining FOX6, she reported for Univision in Sacramento, covering the Farm Workers March, wildfires, politics and the Latino community, and contributed border reporting for a national radio network. She centers families, explains complex decisions clearly and focuses on the human effects of policy.
Adria Iraheta
Adria Iraheta is a community-focused reporter at Denver7, distinct for centering students, families and residents in every story about schools, neighborhoods and public services. She covers how decisions by school districts, local agencies and public institutions land in daily life, with a particular focus on Aurora and Arapahoe County. Her beat sits at the intersection of education, community issues, public services, safety, infrastructure, health and climate, from job cuts in a school district to a new transit safety app, DMV outages, street changes and record heat waves. With a decade of local television reporting experience, she reports on the ground in specific local scenes, using plain language, direct questions to officials and clear explanations to show how policies, programs and changes affect the people who live, study and work in Colorado communities.
Alan J. Borsuk
Alan J. Borsuk stands out for connecting what happens in schools to the policy and political decisions behind them. He writes in-depth K-12 education analysis for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and serves as a senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. His work focuses on Milwaukee Public Schools, school choice, literacy, teacher pipelines, and school accountability. He uses long-range perspective, detailed reporting, and structured analysis to explain how reforms unfold, why they stall, and what they mean for students and leaders. He has also written on vouchers, Teach for America, discipline, and teacher evaluation, drawing on decades as a reporter and editor on education and public policy.