Free Transportation for Under 18 in Some Parts of Washington State

 Via KUOW:

In King County, passengers can show a youth ORCA card, a student ID, or simply board Metro buses and Link light rail. The county will move toward a more universal youth transit pass in 2023. 

Under the Move Ahead Washington package, King County Metro will receive an estimated $31.7 million in grant funding to implement its free youth fare policy by Oct. 1, according to the county.

Seattle Public Schools has distributed free transit passes for middle and high school students in recent years, but only during the school year.

High school student Chloe Dhamdhere said in the past youth would run into trouble if they lost or forgot their ORCA passes, and students were often surprised to realize their passes were suspended during summer months. She said this new policy sounds more comprehensive. 

“I’m glad because some of the drivers will get annoyed because they notice ORCA cards aren’t scanning, or kids will be like, ‘I forgot mine,’” Dhamdhere said. “I’ve gotten yelled at once, so I’m really glad this is taking effect.”

 I think this is wonderful news. I note that students had really wanted ORCA cards to be good for the entire year and not just the school year. 

As far as SPS, I'd have to go back and look but I thought the district was paying some portion of the cost of ORCA cards.  Will this mean some kind of cost savings for the district?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Who Is A. J. Crabill (and why should you care)?

Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
Read more

Why the Majority of the Board Needs to be Filled with New Faces

This may only be a partial list of reasons; please, add anything else in the comments. The deadline to file to run for the Board is May 19th. Entire Board Majority NOT vetting the Superintendent in any way, shape or form. Even the Seattle Times thought that was wrong.  It was just absolute hubris and it was wrong. For the second time in just over a year , board members voted to negotiate a superintendent contract during a special meeting with no opportunity for public comment. This time, they showed an even deeper disregard for their responsibilities as public servants: Aborting a national search for a new superintendent and denying Interim Superintendent Brent Jones a chance to show students, parents and taxpayers that, indeed, he is the best person for the job. Government bodies can’t fast-forward through transparent processes just because they think they know the right answer. One other odd thing about the hiring of Brent Jones - most permanent SPS superintendent contracts ar
Read more