Low-income students would benefit from a $12 million regional proposal

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

By Tom Lochner
Times Staff Writer

EL CERRITO -- Advocates of free bus passes for students rallied in front of El Cerrito High School on Monday, urging students to tell their parents and clergy to attend Wednesday's Metropolitan Transportation Commission meeting in Oakland to demand funding.

"This is history in the making. See how government works for you," State Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, told a crowd of about 100 summer school students studying government and world history, among other subjects.

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and Aroner want the MTC to cough up $12 million for a three-year pilot program to provide free bus passes to middle and high school students in the AC Transit district who are eligible for free or subsidized school lunches.

The AC Transit District extends from Pinole to Fremont. Gioia and Carson estimate that 30,000 students would be eligible for free passes.

High fares force many poor families to choose between putting food on the table or sending their kids to school, Gioia, Carson and Aroner say.

Now, students pay $27 for monthly bus passes. Single-trip fares are $1.35, plus 25 cents for a transfer.

Flanked by a coterie of transit officials, transit advocates, social services activists and ministers in front of a new green AC Transit bus, several students related misadventures caused by high fares: walking two miles to and from school; forgoing an after-school program; and having to walk home after football practice because a transfer bought on the way there had expired.

Zanedra Bradley, 15, a 10th-grader from Hercules, thought even a discount would be a step up.

"Elementary kids can get the yellow bus. Why can't we get the AC Transit for 50 cents?" she asked.

Teacher Darilyn Washington said free bus passes would provide relief to her and her colleagues as well.

"Students are always asking us to lend/give them bus money," Washington said. "You don't expect to get it back."

MTC Chairwoman Sharon Brown agrees with the premise behind the free passes but doesn't think the money is available. Because it covers a nine-county region, the MTC must do what is "regionally equitable," she said.

Although the bus pass idea is not on Wednesday's MTC agenda, Gioia urged people to come down anyway and speak out during the public comment period.

WHAT : Metropolitan Transportation Commission
WHEN : 10:15 a.m. Wednesday
WHERE: MetroCenter auditorium, 101 Eighth St., Oakland.

Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760