July 21, 2001

Student attendance drops at month's end because families can't afford transportation

By Tom Lochner
Times Staff Writer

EL CERRITO -- A trio of East Bay lawmakers wants to use regional transportation funds to provide free bus passes to middle school and high school kids from low-income families.

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, D-Berkeley, want the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to spend $12 million on a three-year school bus pass pilot program in the AC Transit district.

The three will formally unveil their proposal Monday, hoping to win funding support from the regional transportation agency later this year.

The idea, Gioia said, grew out of some of the 28 workshops the MTC held at community centers and similar venues throughout the Bay Area in April and May, where residents complained they were often so strapped at the end of the month they couldn't afford the fare to send their kids to school.

The workshops were part of the process of preparing a Regional Transportation Plan for 2001 through 2025. The plan calls for more than $80 billion in spending and covers a gamut of transportation resources.

At a May workshop in North Richmond, residents spoke of "transportation equity" and called for pumping more transportation dollars into poor neighborhoods. They advocated, among other things, free bus transportation for students.

"It's one of those issues that families have felt impacted by but didn't know where to go," said the Rev. Andre Shumake, program coordinator for the North Richmond Community Career Resource Center, who moderated the event.

In 1999, West County school officials noted that attendance at the district's middle schools dropped off toward the end of every month because families have less money for bus fares.

Not only does children's education suffer, but school budgets lose state funds allocated by daily attendance. A 1999 West County school district study estimated the district's four middle schools -- Crespi, Portola, Adams and Helms -- lost a total of almost $150,000 in the first six months of the 1998-'99 school year because students missed school because of transportation problems.

Under the proposed pilot program, free bus passes would be offered to middle and high school students who are eligible for free or reduced- price school lunches. More than 30,000 students in the AC Transit district would qualify, Gioia estimated.

Many families cannot afford the $27 monthly passes, so students end up paying the single fare of $1.35 as long as they can, said AC Transit spokeswoman Kathleen Kelly.

The program would also offer an annual $95 pass to students who do not qualify for the free pass.

AC Transit, which extends from Pinole to the Fremont-Newark area, is the de facto school bus operator for many large school districts, such as West County. The agency logs 65,000 one-way student trips a day during the school year, 50,000 in Alameda County and 15,000 in Contra Costa, Kelly said.

Although the AC Transit board has not taken a position on the pilot program, "it's in line with what we have expressed as a concern for many years, that the cost of riding the bus is sometimes too high, especially for students from low-income families," Kelly said.

The total cost of the pilot program could be $44.5 million over the three-year period, with AC Transit having to carry the load, Gioia said.

MTC Chairwoman Sharon Brown, who is a San Pablo councilwoman, said she believes "they're kind of overestimating the cost" and that more study is needed.

Brown said she has no quibble with the basic premise behind the proposal but said finding the $12 million is not so easy.

"When you propose something like this, you have to decide where you're going to take the money from," Brown said. Most of the Regional Transportation Plan money, she said, "is already allocated -- and over-extended, shall we say."

Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760