County's per-pupil spending up, but trails state average

Anne Arundel County's per-pupil spending increased $221 in 2003, but still trailed the state average, according to new Census Bureau data.

Spending increased in every county in the state in 2003 and Maryland as a whole allocated about $8,921 per student, the 13th-highest amount in the country.

Anne Arundel's figure was $8,361, while Queen Anne's County saw the smallest increase in Maryland, $148, to $8,025.

School officials and government watchdogs split on whether spending guarantees a better education - or even whether the census numbers measure the full amount that schools shell out per student.

Pat Foerster,...