BALTIMORE - In 1999, the Children's Scholarship Fund announced it would provide private-school scholarships to low-income families across the country. In Baltimore, 46,000 families applied for scholarships - approximately 44 percent of the eligible student population. Since the number of available scholarships was scarce, only 430 lucky students received scholarships that year.

Where are those thousands of children? Most likely many dropped out of high school before graduation. According to one recent study in Education Week, the graduation rate in Baltimore City's public schools could be as low as 39 percent - one of the lowest among major cities in the country.

How many of those thousands of children have grown up to become productive citizens? How many are dependent on state services or incarcerated? These questions are impossible to answer. But state lawmakers need to consider them as they implement this year's round of education reforms.

Year after year, politicians and elected officials in Baltimore City and in Annapolis say increasing funding is the answer to fixing schools. But a close look at the evidence suggests money isn't the problem.

This year, taxpayers will spend more than $9,600 to educate each child in Baltimore City public schools, according to the Maryland Report Card from the Maryland State Department of Education. This amount is above the national average and follows a trend of regular spending increases in the state's public schools over recent years. But history shows simply increasing funding for public education does not boost student performance. Since the early 1970s, per-student spending has doubled while test scores on the long-term National Assessment of Educational Progress have remained flat across the country.

So the question shouldn't be whether our education system needs more money. It should be "Can we get better results out of the money we're spending?" The answer is yes.

Consider the case of KIPP Ujima Village Academy in Baltimore, which receives about half as much money per pupil from the city as traditional public schools. Kipp's 8th-and 7th-graders posted the highest math scores on the 2006 Maryland State Assessment of any school in the state. In 2006, 100 percent of the 8th-graders at KIPP Ujima Village Academy scored "proficient" in math; only 22 percent of students in the district achieved a similar level.

Eighty-two percent of the students in the school are considered "economically disadvantaged," but teachers and students take a no-excuse attitude to learning. Not surprisingly, the school's strong track record is based on rigorous instructional methods that include a longer school day and extra time on the weekend.

Why can't more public schools in Baltimore City succeed like KIPP? One of the academy's advantages is that it is a public charter school-in other words, able to operate independently without being micro-managed by the traditional public school district. This freedom allows the school's leaders to find the right teachers and allocate resources in a manner that works. Unfortunately, politicians in Annapolis, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, have resisted allowing more charter schools like KIPP Ujima Village Academy to open across the state.

The best way to create an environment where more successful models like KIPP can open would be to give parents control of the $9,600 spent each year on their children's education in the form of a scholarship. That scholarship could be used to enroll each child in a public, private or charter school of their choice.

Parents would have the power to demand better services from the city's schools. If a child was at risk of dropping out, they would have the power to enroll the student in a new classroom that delivers better results.

With scholarships we would see the best school models like KIPP replicated, while failing schools would close. The end result would be more children throughout the city receiving an education that prepares them for success later in life.

Tragically, our politicians continue to invest millions of dollars on Baltimore City's public school system without giving families the power to choose the best schools for their children. The 46,000 Baltimore families who applied for tuition scholarships in 1999 cried for help. How many more children must pass through this broken system before their hopes are finally answered?