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NEW YORK—Since the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) proposed to eliminate funding for free and reduced fare student MetroCards in December, more than 16,500 New Yorkers have signed petitions protesting the cut.
At the monthly MTA board meeting on Wednesday, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer presented the stack of letters from outraged parents and straphangers who demand the MTA restore funding for the student MetroCard program, a lifeline for students who rely on public transportation to travel between home and school.
“I’ve brought them here with me today—230 pounds of signed petitions in total—so that every member of the MTA board has tangible evidence of the opposition that this ill-advised budget cut has garnered citywide,” said Stringer in a press release.
“The MTA needs to immediately put an end to this cynical game where children and families are being used as pawns in a public budget negotiation.”
Under the MTA’s current plan, New York City students who are getting free rides at present would start paying half fares in September 2010 and full fare in September 2011.
Without the reinstatement of the funding, each student could pay up to $1,000 annually in transportation fees. This means a lot in a city where 80 percent of public school students have family incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
“Hard working parents and students should not be punished for the MTA’s poor planning and mismanagement of its budget,” stated the petition being circulated by Stringer.
“While other jurisdictions rely on a yellow school bus to get their children to school, in New York City the yellow MetroCard is our school bus, which 400,000 students rely on every day.”
Since the proposal to eliminate the funding was announced last month, the Manhattan Borough president’s office has received an outpouring of support for its petition, which takes the form of a letter addressed to MTA Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Jay Walder.
“Without student MetroCards, my children cannot continue their school,” read one petition from a concerned parent.
“I don’t have money to pay for a MetroCard. … My mom doesn’t have [the] money either,” read a plea from a student. “I'm going to have to get a job but a lot of places won't hire me because I’m too young and should be in school.”
To read the petition and see more of the signatures, please visit http://www.petitiononline.com/mtacuts/petition.html.
