In Portions of Maryland, Movement to Tax Student Actors Through Pay To Play

As first reported by Arts Integrity, a Maryland County is looking to tax student actors in a pay to play plan thanks to constrained school budgets. Most notably, student athletes in Maryland, and across the country, are asked to pay an "activity fee" to offset any expenses.

In June, the Board of Education of the Harford County Public Schools in Maryland voted to impose a $100 per student activity fee on extracurricular drama programs in the high schools in the area and to raise the fee charged to student athletes to the same rate. It was previously $50. Parents and students have been vocal in the area, however there has been a failed appeal from drama participants.

According to the article, several members of the community have created a plan, which has not been formally issues, at the Harford schools. Students will be charged the fee if they want to perform - offstage participants are exempted, creating two classes of theatre kids. Students will be charged the fee per show, so if they appear in a play in the fall and a musical in the spring, for example, it will cost their parents $200.

Unlike the sports programs, the school system has only token funding for extracurricular drama, a program that is already largely self-supported. Young performers are being taxed, but where is the money going. According to the article, the money generated goes not so much to defray the cost of productions, but rather to shore up a hole in the Harford budget.

Interscholastic sports have a $2.9 million allocation in the county's school budget. The motion and vote to get rid of a fee on drama came at the end of a board meeting where county swim teams and their supporters successfully lobbied to save their pursuit in Harford Public Schools.

Jillian V. Lader, manager of communications for the school system, states in the article, "The decision to require a participation fee from students involved in the extracurricular drama program was made by the Board of Education of Harford County on Monday, May [sic] 13, 2016."

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