Blogs:

Recently the students in New York City had another problem to deal with. To cut down on the costs, the government had decided that the free bus rides, the discounts and the students’ concessions offered to students for bus and subway rides was to be revoked. Now this obviously did not go well with the students.

Many students protested against this rule because a concession in travel costs helped them a lot. They could concentrate a little more on buying things that was important for school. But if the concessions were revoked, it would mean that travelling would become even more expensive. And many students would not be able to afford it.

But the now the government plans to keep the discounted fares going. This means that the state would have to provide and pump in find money to keep such rules going on. It has been said that the state government is going to pump in $ 25 million in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority so that they can help the transportation system maintain the concessional rates for students and not suffer any losses. With this they will able to provide free or concessional rides to the students. However, this rule is yet to be approved.

While the authorities at MTA state that they have planned to drop all charges for students coming and going to school, the budget deficit they are facing will have increased greatly. But they also know that if the do not do so, many kids will stop going to school. Yes, stop completely, because there are many students out there who can barely afford school and free travel was a good motivation for them to keep going to school.

However, if charges are levied then the drop out rates can increase. With the discounted rates the MTA faced budget shortcomings that amounted to $800 million. But now they have to take up many more cost saving tricks to overcome the situation.

However, this particular topic has been in debate for long and has had mixed reviews. Many transportation officials feel that it is not their prerogative to offer concessional rides to kids when they are suffering from losses. Even the contribution from the local public has disappeared and hence the officials feel this way.

The transit program’s budget has been slashed from $ 45 million to $ 6 million in the recent past and this has not gone down well with the authorities. Even though the government has promised $ 25 million, it is much less than what the officials had hoped for. And if the transit officials had an option, they would want nothing less than $ 200 million to be pumped into the MTA to keep the free/concessional bus/subway rides going.

Hopefully the matter will be resolved with the transit authorities making a decision in the favour of the students. The education sector is facing a lot of problems lately and if this one persists, it will be bad for students who plan to continue their studies but cannot afford a lot.