State officials wear Education Week's top ranking of Maryland's schools like a low-cut dress on a Hollywood actress at the Oscars. They hope like many on the red carpet that their décolletage is so mesmerizing the B movies filling their résumé will be forgotten.

But they cannot hide the facts. Most students who graduate from high school in Maryland are not prepared for college, much less the working world.

According to the Maryland Higher Education Commission, of those students who went immediately from high school to college, 56 percent needed some type of remediation and 53 percent needed remediation in math in 2010. A decade ago, 47 percent needed some type of remediation, 39 percent in math. The cost: $90 million annually.

Community colleges spend the highest chunk of that money, according to the agency's January report, "The Costs of Developmental Education." Montgomery College spends the most of any community college -- $16.6 million -- bringing students up to speed in core subjects. Frederick Community College spends the least per full-time student.

The percentage of students enrolled in remedial classes ranges from a low of about 9 percent at Allegany College to a high of 24 percent at Baltimore City Community College.

These figures are astounding. Over the same time period the percentage of total state revenue directed to public education has risen from 26 percent in 2000 to 47 percent in 2009, yet student achievement measured in real-world terms has declined.

Maryland is not alone. The same issue is plaguing states around the country, including Connecticut, another high-tax zone like Maryland. A government report from 2010 shows that the majority of high school graduates in that state who enroll at a community college or in the Connecticut State University System are not ready for college-level math or English courses.

Nationally, spending per child has more than doubled in inflation-adjusted dollars since the early 1970s, while student performance has stagnated.

So, the secret is out. More money does not equal higher achievement. But don't count on the education establishment, which always blames a lack of money for its ills, to cite the report.

Gov. Martin O'Malley obviously has not seen the agency's assessment. He wrote in a Feb. 25 Politico opinion piece: "In Maryland, even as we've cut $5.6 billion and reduced the size of our state government, we have made record investments in public education that are improving student achievement in our state."

Technically, he's right. State test scores are going up. But if the tests are rigged to measure knowledge that can't even get a student into reading, math or English 101, why do they count?

And why are we spending $15,100 each year per public school student in this state so that taxpayers can then spend $90 million more each year to re-educate the few who make it to college?

What's clear is that if the state's future depends on "knowledge workers," employers are going to have to look elsewhere to find them.

Marta Mossburg is a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute. She lives in Baltimore. (mmossburg@mdpolicy.org)