By Doug Miller

For decades more than half of the students in New York City’s mammoth public school system have routinely gotten free or discounted bus and subway passes to get to the schools they attend in the city’s five boroughs.

Now, because of the city transit system’s budget troubles, that may end — a possibility that has provoked parents’ anger, student demonstrations and heated political rhetoric in New York and the state capitol of Albany. Last month the board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) voted to end the subsidy by 2011 as part of a broader package of draconian cuts in service in order to close a $400 million budget gap.

Those who want the subsidy continued warn that eliminating it would cut students’ ability to participate in school extracurricular activities and take advantage of the city’s rich and scattered cultural offerings. They also contend that many students from low-income families wouldn’t be able to attend the schools they now do because they couldn’t afford the full-fare transit costs.

In other words, eliminating the subsidy could undermine the ability of many students to continue on to their high school degree.

However, some observers believe that the student subsidy itself is in little actual danger because it was put forward as part of the political brinkmanship between city and state officials and the MTA over the latter’s budget.

Richard Brodsky, the legislator who chairs the New York State Assembly’s committee overseeing the operations of the MTA, says that while its officials have a legitimate gripe about funding its operating budget, the agency is floating phony numbers in its threat to eliminate free and reduced fares for New York City school kids.

Brodsky, a Democrat who represents part of suburban Westchester County, told The Defenders Online that the transit agency is involved in “a very legitimate tussle about the level of funding for the MTA budget. The state and the city are not doing enough, but these kids should not be held hostage.”

The state and the city fully funded the cost of the student MetroCard program until the mid 1990s, when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani pared the city’s contribution because of budget problems. Since then the MTA has picked up the shortfall. Currently the city antes up $45 million a year to cover the program; due to its own budget woes, the state contributed only $6 million last year.

Apples and oranges

The MTA says charging students full fare would increase its revenue by nearly $200 million annually, but Brodsky, who chairs the New York Assembly’s Standing Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, maintains “that’s sort of a phony number.”

The issue, Brodsky says, comes down to imputed revenue as opposed to actual cost. Subways and buses already run the routes used by students. The transit authority has no plans to eliminate those routes, so the actual expense of continuing to service the lines and pick up students free of cost or at a reduced charge actually boils down to just a couple of million dollars. “It’s a very strange deal,” he added, one that he’s busy trying to reframe in a way that helps alleviate the budget problem without putting student transportation in jeopardy.

Asked why he thought the MTA had been misleading about the actual cost of continuing the no-cost/low-cost student MetroCard program, Brodsky answered bluntly: “Everybody gets it when you smack kids.”

And given the percentage of low-income minorities in the city school system, there’s good reason to believe black and Hispanic youngsters could get hit harder than most. Robert Hawkins, a professor of poverty studies with the McSilver Institute on Poverty Policy and Research at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, confirmed that scrapping the reduced-fare program would have a disproportionate impact on minorities not only in terms of economics, but quality education.

Without free or low-cost transportation, he explained, “minority students would be forced to attend their neighborhood schools,” many of which “don’t really meet the quality (standards) that a lot of parents would like.” Currently, high school students in the city can attend any school of their choosing, and most make their selections based on reputations for quality.

“This takes away those choices,” Hawkins said. “It puts an undue burden on low-income minority families. With this proposal, the MTA places its mismanagement and poor oversight on the backs of New York City children.”

Brodsky has stated that – when the push for free and reduced student subway rides eventually comes to shove – the program will remain in place. But not without an agreement on funding.

“We’re both broke,” he lamented, referring to the city and the state. But that’s no reason to put students in the middle. The budget is the problem, not school kids, he said, “and we’re trying to figure it out.”

Doug Miller is a writer who lives near New York City.