Worcester County Commissioner Exposes Sneaky Budget Tactic and Political Double Standard

Worcester County Public Schools administration went before the Worcester County Commissioners to go over their annual school budget for 2026. The school district also asked the county for 11-million dollars in additional funding. In response, Commissioner Caryn Abbott asked a couple of questions that exposed a sneaky budget tactic and a hypocritical double standard of political bias within the school administration.

WCPS has a budget line item called "Textbooks and Classroom Supplies." One thing we don't see in a school's budget are subcategories. Instead, they like to use broad categories to conceal what they're spending within. Under this line item, there's a sub category called "Textbooks." For 2025, the budget for textbooks was $596,087. This is questionable, because it's observed that students no longer carry textbooks in their backpack and the school board hasn't reviewed any curriculum or textbooks in over 3 years.

For the record, "Instructional Materials" is a separate category from textbooks. Since the textbook line item has always existed before the advancement of technology, the district continues to request textbooks in the budget hoping that nobody will notice. Today, mostly everything is digital. For 2026, WCPS is again asking for money for textbooks.

In the second question, Commissioner Abbott asks what the district is going to do in response to the Executive Orders from the Trump Administration as it relates to DEI and political agendas in the school. Annette Wallace, finalist for the next Superintendent, responded by explaining that the district would ultimately follow the State of Maryland.

Abbott calls out Wallace, since the district has spent the past four years saying that they're required by law to follow the Executive Orders of the Biden Administration. The double standard was clearly exposed, revealing that the district was fully willing to follow the EOs of the Biden Administration, but not the EOs of the Trump Administration today.

Carefully listen and watch the video below:

Fellows & Editors

April 13, 2025. DelmarvaPTC.org.

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