MTA May Cut Student MetroCard Funding
December 14, 2009 § 13 Comments
I am one of 550,000 NYC students who currently has a free or discounted MetroCard for bus and subway access.
But this may change in the next few years. Because of budget troubles, the MTA is considering a plan that would force schoolkids to pay half fares next year, and full fares by 2011.
THIS SHIT IS FUCKED UP.
This would be a financial blow to my family, but truthfully, we would have it the easiest by far. We’re privileged; we have money for MetroCards. Many, many families don’t.
If the MTA cuts free student MetroCards, low-income kids will drop out of the “public” school system because they can’t afford the ride. This is not difficult to understand.
“It’s stupid,” said Brittney Rojas, 13, as she walked down Bushwick Ave., in Brooklyn, with her three sisters. “If you live far away it means you can’t afford to go to school.”
“Some kids just won’t go to school,” her sister Chelsea, 12, chimed in. “Or some might have to walk outside in the winter and get sick.”
…”It would be a catastrophe,” said Nateria Cannon, 17, an 11th-grader at Manhattan Village Academy who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “I think it’s crazy. Parents are losing their jobs and the fare went up. They would have to work overtime.”
Kids understand this intuitively. You’d think the city would, too.
I suppose I don’t need to mention the implicit environmental racism that’s also present in this plan: students who live in affluent neighborhoods that have great public schools don’t need a MetroCard to get to class. It’s the underprivileged students, who often live far from good schools (or, because of calculated zoning efforts, live just outside of a district with good schools), who rely on the subsidized rides.
Yet again, I’ll ask: where the fuck are your priorities, government?
Women's Glib 
This is soooo true!!! I agree with you 100%. The attendance for all schools are really going to drop!
Awesome ass article!! I truly believe that the cut of the MTA Student Metrocard will really affect my family. It is fucked up. 100% I agree.
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I totally agree. I think the whole thing is really a dumb plan, I mean how long have we students been given free student MetroCards? A very long time. All I know is that I’m definitly not paying almost five dollars a day to go to school. That’s too much to be paying. My school’s in Manhattan, I’m not walking all the way to Manhattan from the Bronx. It’s not our fault that there’s no money. The government should’ve been taking care of that. They’re supposedly “for the people” — then why can’t they get their shit on point? They’re supposed to be there so things like this shouldn’t happen. Shouldn’t it be part of the U.S.A to have a stable use of money? Where has it all gone? Spending it on trivial things. I believe the number of students going to school is going to decrease dramatically, more crime and drug rate and also people having sexual acts are going to increase (pregnancies, diseases), more gang activities, etc. Wasn’t the whole world preaching about these students being the future? And also to stay in school? Well, we’re not going to be the future if we don’t get educated. And how are we going to stay in school if some of us just don’t have the money like that? Obama needs to take a stand because I have yet to hear from him and his opinion of what’s going on with the student MetroCards.
I agree with this. Students who Want to go to school won’t even get the education they want because many of their families are in a Money crisis as it is so if it goes through kids who actually want to go to school have to drop out and go through a struggle just to find a school that they are close to which we be stressing because many schools might even be full . For the Kids who would rather cut and hang out with their friends than go to school that’s all the excuse they have to not go to school, Many Kids are on to this already and are thinking about boycotting school just because of it
if these kids can afford expensive sneakers, jewlery, nails done, sidekicks, blackberries, G1s, gshock watches, fitted caps, $5 breakfast, etc., then they have no problem paying a fare for their bus/subway ride. lay off those damn music videos and realize that youre not rich..
(this does not apply to the ones who are actually poor and arent able to afford much.. im talking about ones who think theyre as rich as a typical celebrity)
I don’t really understand what kids you’re referring to….your comment sounds eerily like the ‘Welfare Queen’ rhetoric that I hate so much.
BUT let’s run with it. I will say this: kids will never have the critical thinking skills to subvert music video/pop culture ideology if they are unable to get to school. Plain and simple. The (fictional, in my opinion) kids that you speak of will probably never realize what true value is if they become drop-outs.
This whole thing is just an example of the government setting a standard and then not enabling citizens to meet that standard. The government PROHIBITS kids under the age of 16 from dropping out of school. But now they’re going to hinder kids’ abilities to reach their schools??
Even if school weren’t a legal obligation for kids under 16, education is just so damn necessary and SO WONDERFUL. How is this generation going to fix the health care and environmental crises (to name just a few issues) that we’re going to inherit if the government itself stands in the way of our education and enrichment?? USE YOUR BRAINS, GOVERNMENT. Because after all, we are going to be the ones taking care of you someday. We will decide whether you have Medicare or not. We’ll decide whether your grandchildren should march into war, we’re going to be the ones making sure that the earth isn’t absolutely destroyed by wantonness and greed. Think about us, and if that doesn’t move you, think about your damn selves. Keep providing young NYC scholars with Student Metrocards.
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