NYC to Public School Students: Pay Your Own Way

by Jessica Shiller · 2010-01-20 16:29:00 UTC
Topics:

For New York City public school students, there is nothing but bad news for 2010. Seventeen public schools are being closed down this year, there are across the board budget cuts, students will have to start getting higher scores on the required Regents exams, and, to top it off, they may have to start paying for public transportation to get to school.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) recently announced that their budget shortfall will necessitate asking students to pay for buses and subways -- the way that the majority of public school students get to school. Students and their families have not been silent, protesting these detrimental school policies. But the mayor, the MTA, and state have not backed off.

Just like when the city appealed to Washington for help in 1975 with its budget crisis, and then-president Gerald Ford refused to bail the city out, current political leaders seem to be unsympathetic to city students and families. Why are the city’s pubic school students getting treated this way? City students have always had to do more with less, but making them pay to get to these under-resourced schools? That may be crossing the line.

In this economy, we are all doing some belt tightening, but this is no way to improve the education of city kids. If we want to improve urban public schools, the first step is to do right by the students. Support them by funding their schools, helping struggling schools improve, and, if nothing else, making sure all students can get to school for free. You can make your voice heard by signing a petition which will ask the MTA to restore monies to make the subways and buses free to students in New York City.

Photo credit: gothamschools.org

Jessica Shiller is the education policy director for Advocates for Children and Youth in Baltimore, MD.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Why Kids Learn Less When Schools Get Rid of Recess
NEXT STORY:
Student loans got you down? Start a petition.

COMMENTS (3)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.