Md. Schools Get Big Hike In Funding

By Joetta L. Sack

As most cash-strapped states struggle just to maintain education funding this year, Maryland legislators are taking another path: They passed a six-year plan last week to ultimately add $1.3 billion annually for schools and to reduce inequities.

The bill, considered all but dead a few weeks ago, was pushed through in the final hours of the legislature's 2002 session.

The state will add 34 cents to its cigarette tax to make a two-year down payment on the plan, which includes new accountability measures for district spending. Gov. Parris N. Glendening, a Democrat, said he plans to sign the bill. Others hailed...