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ANNAPOLIS — An independent report released this week said that Maryland's landmark investment in public education has resulted in greater student achievement, but the findings left some wondering what is next.

The report's release Wednesday at Annapolis High School provided a day of vindication six years in the making, state officials said.

"I think what this report means is we the people of Maryland made a huge investment in education, and that investment has paid off," said Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).

The report by MGT of America found that the Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act, passed by the General Assembly in 2002, resulted in a more than $3 billion increase in state and local investment in K-12 education over the past six years.

In turn, the report said, student performance improved on state tests in reading and math, with 51 percent more students in third- through fifth-grade showing proficiency in reading and 49 percent more showing proficiency in math.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, all students must show proficiency in reading and math by 2014.

The Bridge to Excellence law grew out of a nearly two-year study by the Commission on Education Finance, Equity and Excellence, which is better known as the Thornton Commission for its chairman, Alvin Thornton, an associate provost and chief academic officer at Howard University.

The funding increases included $2 billion in state aid for schools — an increase of 83 percent — and $1.3 billion from local governments.

"I think the majority of our people will say, ‘Wow, that investment paid off. Let's make sure we defend what we've done,'" O'Malley said.

The release of the nearly 500-page audit report on the funding plan came the same day that an Education Week report ranked Maryland public schools first in the nation. Maryland received a B overall grade. The national average was a C.

Jerry Ciesla, a senior partner with MGT America who was the audit's lead investigator, praised Maryland for developing a national model for school funding and accountability.

"It put forth a much-needed increase [of] state funding of education in Maryland, but it did so very wisely," Ciesla said.

"Local appropriations per pupil increased by $163 in Somerset County Public Schools and by $3,299 per pupil in Worcester County Public Schools," the report said.

The audit proved that increased funding leads to increased school accountability, said state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.

Still, Grasmick said that she is "worried to death" about the prospects of maintaining funding levels in the current fiscal climate.

O'Malley is considering how — or if — the state can afford to pay for a provision of the Thornton funding law that calls for extra state aid to school systems where the cost of educating students is highest. The formula, known as the Geographic Cost of Education Index, or GCEI, has never been fully budgeted and would cost $126 million to fully fund in fiscal 2010.

"We will probably have to slow the rate of which we ramp up to the full implementation of GCEI given the economic downturn," O'Malley said.

While much of the state's education spending is mandated by funding formulas, GCEI is not, which "makes it lower-hanging fruit when [lawmakers] look for things to cut," said John R. Woolums, a lobbyist for the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. "I would like legislators to consider it as an integral part of the Thornton framework."

In the meantime, lawmakers need to "hold the line" and increase education spending as much as possible as soon as possible, Woolums said.

The report "marks the end of the Thornton era in some way," but does not offer much guidance on how to build on the momentum generated by the spending increases, said Matthew Joseph, executive director of Advocates for Children and Youth.

"One would've hoped that the final report would have provided some recommendation on where do we go from here," he said.

Read the report at www.maryland

publicschools.org/MSDE