We as taxpayers pay for the schools, teachers, meals and the kids transportation to and fro school.Then when the kids fail or drop out it's the school system's fault. Where is the personal responsibility parents should have for the children they decide to bring into this world. This is ridiculous, parents should contribute half the fare for their kids transportation cost. It's not society responsibility to support other people's children. Enough!

I agree. If they can find money to waste on useless Public Works projects. They can find money so kids can get to school. Or they can work it out like they do the lunch program. If the parents earn less than a certain amount they get free lunch. Over a certain amount they pay half price. And then you have those that pay for lunch. There are all sorts of ways to do this.

A monthly metrocard for one child per year is roughly $1100. A family with three kids (not even going overboard with fecundity) would suddenly have to dig up an extra $3300 per year just to get their children to school. That is not unsubstantial.

For all of you who complain that your tax dollars go to children you didn't personally have... If you're too self centered to simply understand that enriching our children means less stupid people we have to deal with later then how about this?...

Remember that lack of education promotes sustained poverty. Sustained poverty increases crime. Better to educate those kids than leave them dumb and unable to get a job... Then you'd have to pay even more for public assistance or court/incarceration costs. Which sounds better?

Costs about as much to get a kid to school for a year as it does to take care of a cat. Off the Kittehs. Support children and their need for education.

Why should I have to pay for your child's transportation? I work hard. I need to in order to survive in NYC and pay my rent and bills...including my metro card. Why should my hard earned dollars be used for your kid? If you can't aford a simple metro card for your child, maybe you shouldn't have had a child in the first place. I'm sick of the pity party people. If you want a child, know how to support them. I'm sick of MY HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS going towards things that have no benefit to me or my city.

When was the last time you voted?

I'm sick of my tax dollars going to support the war in Iraq, salaries for Republican politicians, sports stadiums and tax breaks for religious organizations, but we don't always get what we want. Part of living in a democracy is realizing that your tax dollars may not always be used for things that directly benefit you.

Education benefits us all by hopefully producing young adults who are literate, productive members of the workforce and society.

Because that is how it is done everywhere else in the country. I never had to pay to ride the bus to school, and you didnt either, did you?

And how does educating children have no benefit to either you or your city? You're an idiot.

"I never had to pay to ride the bus to school"

No, but your parents paid for it along with everyone else in your district, through school taxes. Buses don't run for free.

So if you're going to make that comparison, you're arguing that DOE should pick up the cost and school taxes should be raised to cover it. That's "how it is done everywhere else in the country."

school tax? lol wtf is school tax...there's no such thing. your property tax (if you even own a house) goes towards the school districts.....have you even seen somebody paying 10K a year in property tax with a shitty public school in their district?

These kids need to shut up. The important thing is that the TWU is still getting their yearly 4% raises.

Honestly I doubt most of the commenters here have kids or have ever been part of the NYC public school system. The system requires free transportation because of they way that the school system is laid out. Even your zone school may require that you hop on a bus, especially when we we start talking about high schools, which BTW, your city is in the process of shutting many of them down.

If the MTA cuts the Metrocard system, then the school system collapses, because most students do not go to their zone schools. Manhattan and Bronx high schools are not zoned at all, and many schools in Brooklyn or Queens require admission. These non zone schools large in part require students from various distances, and almost none of the population in the school live in these neighborhoods. Shutting down the metrocard program will stagnate their admissions and yes, will probably force a few of them to shut down due to low attendance

So any of the idiots above who say that its a good thing that the student metrocard service might get scrapped should move out of the city promptly, because there's nothing that spurs crime more than making it difficult to receive and education. Not to mention that this would trigger an exodus of the low and middle class from the city, creating an economic disaster.

Yep. This isn't a city where middle and high school students can just walk around the corner to their friendly neighborhood school.

All this is going to do is ensure that students' access to quality education in the city is even more restricted. Which in turn will affect their college options, which in turn will affect their long-term futures.

Not to mention that this would trigger an exodus of the low and middle class from the city, creating an economic disaster. -IF they can't afford to pay for their children' bus passes then I doubt they have much of an economic impact if they flee the city. Most people even without children know that kids don't attend their zone schools. NOthing new. The question is should kids that CAN afford to pay receive FREE PASSES? MY opinion is NO.

Yes, it would be an economic disaster. A city needs all economic classes to survive, if the guy who is driving the bus can suddenly not afford to send his children to school, then he will be forced to leave the city. Have enough low and working class earners have a similar situation, and then the city will fall onto itself due to the missing tax revenue and lack of low wage earners entering the city. In the past, the people you would turn to to fill this gap is immigrants, but with a $1000 per year tax for each of their children, I doubt you'll see unskilled workers coming to the city in great numbers anymore.

Its simple economics. You cannot have a city filled with only the wealthy, it will never be able to sustain itself, and you cannot expect that the surrounding areas would funnel in poor workers, especially now where we are seeing much of long island and northern NJ price these people out. When they leave, they're leaving the tristate for good.

Yes, you are right about the immigrants filling the gap of the exodus. You can see it in any business in manhattan that employes immigrants since the working class can't afford the city without a living wage. this is what Thompson ran on, how the working class were being driven out of the city and into the outer boroughs. But they can't even afford the outer boroughs anymore because all the small businesses hire illegals as well. I don't want the city with only wealthy folks, they perverse the west village and chelsea. It's a playground for them. But I still want the rich kids to pay for their own MTA passes.

Actually, "society" is obligated to give everyone a free education if they so choose it. The federal government doesn't take this upon themselves, but the states do.

Based on what?, It's not a natural right. Society is prohibited from standing in your way but it isn't obligated to give you free education.

No, actually, by New York State law, students are entitled to a free education.

§ 3202. Public schools free to resident pupils; tuition from nonresident pupils. 1. A person over five and under twenty-one years of age who has not received a high school diploma is entitled to attend the public schools maintained in the district in which such person resides without the payment of tuition.

Yes, it states he is entitled but the State isn't obligated to provide free education. The state can closed all public schools and not provide any education for anyone. What it is prohibited from doing is barring students from attending the schools (when opened) based on color, race, sex etc.... but it isn't obligated. As you stated there is no federal law and the states take it upon themselves. NYS provides free education but it isn't obligated by any constitution (Federal or State). In reality Society doesn't owe us anything but it should do no harm by prohibiting us unless it's for the greater good.