Worcester Not Considering Charging Athletes

BERLIN -- Despite a growing trend toward “pay-to-play” policies for sports and other extracurricular activities in the face of shrinking budgets and other cutbacks, Worcester County public schools officials will not be collecting fees from student athletes any time in the near future.

Public school systems across Maryland and throughout the country are adopting stringent fee schedules for students to participate in sports and even music, fine arts and drama in many cases. Just last week, Queen Anne’s County joined the ranks of school systems in Maryland that will start charging students fees to play sports or participate in other extracurricular activities and neighboring Wicomico has a plan in place although the policy has not been adopted. Earlier this summer, Prince George’s County adopted its own “pay-to-play” policy following a growing trend among public school systems to offset the tough economy and stringent budget cuts.

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