I’m working on deconstructing the CIR ASAP pero in the meantime, I wanted to take a few moments to come down against the NY’s Metropolitan Transit Authority’s plan to deal with it’s budget shortfall by slowly eliminating the free student metrocard program for middle and high schoolers.

JOIN COUNCILMEMBER CHARLES BARRON, TRANSIT WORKERS, RIDERS AND YOUTH TOMORROW, WED 8:30 AM
TO PROTEST THE MTA’S ATTACK ON STUDENTS AND OTHERS
Wednesday, 8:30 AM at MTA Headquarters, 347 Madison Street , Bet 44th and 45th Street

I am a parent whose child uses her student metrocard to go to and from school. As a single mother with two children, I can barely afford to put myself on the subway to commute to an from work, mush less the additional at least $100/month it would cost for me to send my child to school . In New York City, especially, where overcrowding of local schools force parents to school outside their neighborhoods, not to mention the disparities in terms of resources depending on what community you live in, the move to eliminate student metrocards is a death sentence to the education of hundreds of thousands of students.

I was watching NY1 earlier today and saw parents and children protesting in Brooklyn. Students were saying that if the metrocards were cut, they would try hard to get to school for their education but that they may not make it.

Is this going to be the new tracking? Those who can afford to get to school will and those who can’t, drop out?

I really hope rights organizations, legal organizations, and student organizations team up to think of some creative ways to protest these measures. I know have some ideas.