MTA student transit passes may be cut
The MTA is planning to cut costs by eliminating free- and reduced-fare student transit passes for over half a million city students, according to the Daily News. A fare discount on express busses was already cancelled earlier this year.
http://coveringeducation.org/
The Bloomberg administration (and the Obama administration) are relying heavily on charter schools to improve public education for underserved students, but many of the charter schools aren't where the underserved students can get to them without a long commute. Meanwhile, the local schools they can easily get to are suffering cuts in funding and attention as the most high-performing students leave for charters.
The MTA, which has been splitting the cost of the $160 million program with the state, faces a funding shortfall of up to $500 million next year, based on lower-than-projected tax revenues and a rollover of this year's deficit into next year's budget.
Assuming that the cost of a monthly Metro Card doesn't go up, which history teaches us is not at all a safe thing to do, families will be shouldering up to an additional $89/month per child.
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