The current session of the General Assembly is considering proposals to create a statewide approach to school funding. "I applaud the efforts of House Speaker Casper Taylor and Education Secretary Nancy Grasmick to provide a statewide approach to education funding for at risk students in all our counties, " said Eileen Rehrmann, Harford County Executive. "At the end of the last legislative session, Speaker Taylor made it clear that the next session would deal with this problem."

A day after the 1997 session concluded, Casper Taylor announced the organization of a task force to come up with a statewide plan before the 1998 session. Legislation based on the recommendations of the task force will be considered by the current legislature.

The new "Targeted Improvement Program" would increase funding for schools with high numbers of poor children, increase support for pre-school children from low income families and increase opportunities for students who speak limited English. "These are the three areas that seem to have the accelerated numbers of children that we are not serving very well right now," Grasmick said.

Where has the governor been? Is he entitled to credit? "For the governor’s office to now suggest that he has been supportive of a comprehensive state-wide approach is certainly news to the rest of us, "Eileen Rehrmann said. "As recently as last summer, the governor made it clear he was opposed to a statewide formula. He was still pushing his divisive county-by-county approach. I think it is significant that other state leaders have had to fill the leadership vacuum and develop new approaches to education funding."