School budget battle heats up

Kerri Barbour has two teenagers in west county schools. She wouldn't mind paying higher taxes to raise money for public education.

But Mike DeCicco sends his two elementary-age kids to a private Glen Burnie academy and doesn't want another dime of his family's budget to go toward county schools.

The two county residents are about as far apart as they can be on how to fund public education.

They're also the faces of a polarizing debate that has ignited for the first time in years over whether county officials should raise taxes to boost school system coffers.

County schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell's $920...