For Immediate Release
UFT joins elected officials to demand MTA continue providing free student MetroCards
Feb 18, 2010 4:25 PM
Charge that poorest families could end up paying nearly ten percent of income to get kids to and from school
A coalition of organized labor, elected officials, students and teachers rallied at Bowling Green Station in lower Manhattan on Feb. 18 to protest budget cuts that would eliminate free student MetroCards and result in a regressive “tax” that could cost many of New York’s poorest families more than $2,600 per year, nearly ten percent of their annual income.
“New Yorkers are supposed to be entitled to a free public education,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “But it won’t be free any more if the MTA insists on charging students for their trips to and from school. What’s more, this fare increase would fall most heavily on our neediest families, who are already struggling in the recession to pay their rent and keep food on the table.”
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, Chairman Of the Assembly Committee on Corporations which has jurisdiction over the MTA, and who yesterday released a letter to the MTA signed by dozens of his colleagues on this subject, said, “The Speaker and my colleagues are committed to solving this problem. There is no cost to the MTA to provide this service and the decision to use students and their families as pawns in an understandable effort to increase city and state funding is unfair, destructive and in the end, unacceptable.”
Jack Ahern, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, said, “The MTA is going the wrong way yet again and their student MetroCard elimination plan will have serious consequences for New York City’s working families who cannot afford any new expenses in these tough economic times. Our children are the single best investment we have, and they certainly do not belong or deserve to be on a bureaucratic balance sheet.”
Two-thirds of New York City’s K-12 students come from families with an annual income of $28,000 or less, the federal limit for free-lunch eligibility. For one of those families to send two children to school would mean an expense of $1,890 per year. A family in this income bracket with three children who ride public transportation to school would have to spend up to $2,670, nearly ten percent of their gross annual income.
These calculations were done using ten 30-day MetroCards at $89 per card. If subway/bus fare were to rise, the amount would obviously grow further.
Currently, students in grades 3 through 6 are eligible for free-fare cards if they live one more or more from their school. In grades 7 through 12, students are eligible for free-fare if they live one and one-half miles or more from their school.
New York City Comptroller John Liu said, “As economic misery cuts ever deeper into families across the city, eliminating student MetroCards as a way to close the City’s budget gap is simply wrong and poses an unreasonable burden on our kids.”
City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn said, “The MTA’s proposed elimination of the student MetroCard program presents a severe hardship to New York’s neediest families. The City Council and the Straphangers have offered an alternative to the proposed MTA budget cuts. We urge them to seriously consider our plan, which would save the student MetroCard program.”
Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer said, “The MTA cannot balance its budget on the backs of our public schools kids. Families are struggling to make end meets, and this cut may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The MTA needs to find a way to restore this funding, so that parents are not subjected to a kid tax.”
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said, “There are other ways of raising revenue, many of which I have suggested, like a modest car registration fee, a modest gas tax dedicated to public transportation, creating a special lottery, and selling off costly, unneeded MTA properties. Cutting student cards would be like a bully taking lunch money from those who can’t defend themselves.”
Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign, said, “An end to discount student MetroCards would be a catastrophe for hundreds of thousand of families. That’s why we are calling for the State and the City to provide more funding to maintain vital student passes.”
Background
Under the MTA proposed budget, students would begin paying half-price fares in September of 2010 and full fares starting 2011.
Since 1995 the state and city have each contributed $45 million annually toward MTA student funding. This year, the state cut its funding to New York City to subsidize student transportation drastically to $6 million while state funding for student transportation aid in districts other than New York City increased by almost $100 million.
The elimination of the free student service in New York City is one of the major budget-balancing tactics by the MTA, which has also planned service reductions in New York City that would save an estimated $100 million out of the agency’s $13.5 billion budget. These would include reducing service on major subway and bus lines, discontinuing some bus routes, and reducing subway station staffing.
George Gresham, President of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said, “Working families are already struggling to survive in this current economic climate. There is no question that the elimination of student MetroCards would devastate low-income families who only want the piece of mind that their children are able to get to school and receive an education.”
Ernie Logan, President CSA, said, “In these harsh economic times, with families affected by rampant unemployment, insufficient or no health care, and escalating housing costs, the last thing they can manage is to start shelling out extra money to put their children on subways and buses so they can go to school. Denying our children access to schools is unthinkable.”
Assemblyman William Colton (D-Brooklyn) said, “We need to make it clear that education must be our top priority and cutting student MetroCards sacrifices our children’s future by placing obstacles in their path to quality.”
Assemblyman Michael Dendekker (D-Queens) said, “It’s unconscionable that the governor and the MTA believe that the best — and only — way to balance the authority’s books is to do so on the backs of our school children and their families. My colleagues and I will work together to fight the governor and the MTA to make sure that student MetroCards are fully restored.”
Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx) said, “It is appalling that the MTA is using New York City’s school children as pawns in its annual effort to squeeze even more money out of the taxpayers of New York City and New York State. The cost to the MTA of free fare and half fare for students is minimal; the cost of eliminating student discounts would be prohibitive to tens of thousands of families. I am confident that the Assembly won’t allow this to happen.”
City Council Member James F. Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) said, “I consider this proposal to be off the table. Our students are the future of this city.”
City Council Member Vincent Gentile (D-Brooklyn) said, “Telling students and families, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet, to bear such a significant part of the MTA’s financial burden is unconscionable. The MTA, in bridging their budget gap, needs to do so in ways that are equitable instead of harsh.”
Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens) said, “It is outrageous that the MTA has proposed terminating student metro cards as a means to close their budget gap. The MTA receives funding from both the state and the city to subsidize the cost of this program, and the State recently restored $19 million in funding for these cards. To target a vulnerable community that relies on this transportation to go to school is not only irresponsible, but deplorable.”
City Council Member Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx) said, “I am appalled that the MTA would consider charging students for MetroCards. In this economy, it is unconscionable to place an additional financial burden on parents which, in some cases, would amount to thousands of dollars. The MTA must find alternative sources of revenue.”
Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Brooklyn) said, “No one would ever keep going to a restaurant that kept raising the prices for bad food and worse service. Yet after cutting student metrocards, the MTA rewards students, their families, and the rest of New York with unconscionable service cuts. We need to stop this cycle now, by keeping student cards and stopping the doomsday cuts.”
City Council Member Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan) said, “Policy wonks can debate all they want about whether pupil transportation should be a transit expense or an education expense but it is crystal clear that it should not be a student expense. Our entire school system is based on the assumption that all students in NYC will be able to use public transportation to get to school — not just students whose families can pay the fare.”
Assemblywoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) said, “The cuts approved by the MTA are a disheartening sign of our priorities. We should all work together to find other areas from which to make cuts so as to provide our children with the transportation necessary for their education.”
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn) said, “Last summer the MTA’s Doomsday Budget threatened exaggerated service cuts unless Albany again bailed out the MTA. The legislature fully funded that request. And here we are, mere months later, facing those same cuts, and more. The MTA has to understand this: we have to get our kids to school! Student passes are not negotiable.”
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) said, “The MTA’s decision will make life even more difficult for families already under siege from high rents and other excessive costs of living. At a time when New York City residents are being asked to provide a greater percentage of the MTA’s budget than ever before, we cannot allow these shameful cuts to occur.”
Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-Staten Island) said, “We should not be attempting to balance budgets on the backs of students.”
City Council Member James Vacca (D-Bronx), Chairman of the New York City Council’s Transportation Committee, said, “The MTA is on the verge of making mass transit unavailable to the masses. As students and families weigh public school options for the coming year, too many must now unfortunately take into account their ability to pay. This has never happened before and represents a disturbing new reality.”
City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens) “Public transportation is a core city service — especially for our students whose families are struggling with the current financial crisis. It is imperative that we continue providing our students with MetroCards.”
City Council Member Mark S. Weprin (D-Queens) said, “The MTA should not be balancing its budget at the expense of school children.”
