The Geographic Cost of Education Index
As recommended by the Thornton Commission, the Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act of 2002 includes a Geographic Cost of Education Index (GCEI), to be used to adjust State education aid to reflect regional differences in the cost of providing educational services that are outside the control of local jurisdictions. The law established a temporary formula to determine how GCEI funds would be distributed in fiscal 2004 and required the state to hire a consultant to devise a new index to go into effect on July 1, 2004, for the 2005 fiscal year.
Work on the GCEI was completed in December 2003. However, in October 2003, a Maryland assistant attorney general issued a memorandum saying that because the law did not contain specific dollar figures for the GCEI for future years, the governor is not required to include this money in his budget. Although the General Assembly codified the GCEI during the 2004 session of the General Assembly, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich never requested funding for the Index.
The GCEI became a campaign issue in 2006 when the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Martin O'Malley , pledged to fund it. Upon taking office, however, and facing a substantial revenue shortfall, Governor O'Malley decided not to request funds for the GCEI in his fiscal 2008 budget, which was submitted to the General Assembly on January 19 th .
On January 22 nd , the Governor proposed legislation that would make the GCEI mandatory beginning in fiscal 2009, with funding phased in over three years. The bill is similar to one sponsored last year by Senator Ulysses Currie (D-25), the chair of the Budget and Taxation Committee, that would have phased in the GCEI by fiscal 2013. Senator Currie's bill passed the Senate but was not taken up by the House. Governor O'Malley's bill also would require the Maryland State Department of Education to update the factors used to calculate the GCEI beginning September 1, 2009, and every three years thereafter.
The cost to fund the GCEI in fiscal 2008 is estimated by the Maryland State Department of Education at $94.7 million. The 13 jurisdictions with education costs above the statewide average under the GCEI are Prince George's County, Baltimore City, Montgomery, Frederick, Calvert, Charles, Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll, Queen Anne's, Kent, Baltimore, and St. Mary's counties. The GCEI includes a hold-harmless provision so that no local school system would see any reduction in education funding under the Index.