EHRLICH'S "FAUX" EDUCATION FACTSBALTIMORE, MD

The Ehrlich campaign seemed caught off-guard yesterday by Governor O'Malley's "Building Maryland's Schools" plan and was forced to put out "faux" facts of their own.

O'Malley's plan includes an additional $1 billion for school construction over the next four years to rebuild our schools and revitalize our communities. After a $1.3 billion investment in school construction during his first term, Governor O'Malley committed to meeting the recommendation of the Kopp Commission and providing $250 million for school construction annually over the next four years.

O'Malley's investment in rebuilding our public schools represents a 56% increase over Bob Ehrlich's one-term in office. Bob Ehrlich chronically-underfunded public school construction in our state, leading the Kopp Commission to declare that Maryland was facing a "crisis in school construction." In 2005, the Washington Post declared that the needs of Maryland schools were indisputable.

Yet, even with his failed record, the Ehrlich campaign declared inaccurately to WBAL-TV that Bob Ehrlich "spent almost twice as much as O'Malley on state support to public schools."

Now we know that Bob Ehrlich increased state spending by 33% when he was in office... But his claim about public education funding is just plain wrong. Bob Ehrlich actually failed to fully-fund Thornton and ignored the Geographic Cost of Education Index.

In addition to investing more to build Maryland's schools after four years of chronic-underfunding by Bob Ehrlich, a quick look at the numbers shows that Governor O'Malley invested approximately $21.7 billion to support public education in Maryland compared to Bob Ehrlich's $15.4 billion.

Bob Ehrlich's "faux" facts aside, Governor O'Malley has increased support for public education each year for the last four years The most recent FY2011 budget devotes $5.7 billion to public school operations, the highest level of funding in Maryland history and $1.2 billion more than was budgeted just four years ago. The O'Malley-Brown administration is also the first to fund the Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI) which was part of the 2002 Thornton Plan to provide additional aid to jurisdictions where the cost of education is disproportionately expensive.