Maryland's school finance system experienced a restructuring in 2002 with the passage of SB 856, the "Bridge to Excellence Act." The "Bridge" Act set the funding amount for "base" students, brought state funding for kindergarten students on par with students in grades 1-12, and collapsed about 50 school funding programs into eight. The act also increased the state's cigarette tax by 34 cents per pack to fund the increases in school funding to school systems. In exchange for this increased funding, the Bridge Act required the state to hold school systems accountable for meeting student achievement benchmarks, including sanctions for low school performance. This report describes Maryland's current system of school finance, provides data describing large increases in funding for K-12 education that have occurred since the passage of the 2002 Bridge Act, and offers the recommendation to make Maryland's system of school finance more transparent to parents, educators, and other taxpayers. This report makes two recommendations. The first would provide greater transparency in public school funding. The second would allow parents to direct the taxpayer resources devoted to their child's education to the traditional public, charter public, or private school of their choice. This change would further increase parental control and involvement within Maryland's education system. (Contains 10 tables and 1 endnote.) [This study was released jointly by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and the Maryland Public Policy Institute.]