How old is that program? Might you recall when that was instituted?
One second, let me check with staff. (Mr. Leary confers off record with colleagues.)
Okay. Let me. . . okay, all right. So we'll just look forward to receiving the language that says specifically that students cannot be included as a constituency or the School District as an institution --
Are there any other questions from members of the committee?
SEPTA and the School District should stay around for a while. And could Yanoff and Mr. Braxton come to the table, please. (Witnesses come forward.)
You know, the 14th Amendment of the Federal Constitution, the equal protection clause, is the factor here that is the operating -- the operating -- the legal operative 115 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 clause that prevents SEPTA from doing anything along those lines.
Miss Yanoff, could you state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Yeah. I'm Shelly Yanoff, and I'm the Director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, the region's child advocacy organization outside of government. Thank you for holding the hearing and for the opportunity to testify. I want to say that this is about the third or fourth hearing, and kids are still waiting while adults are debating. The posters that are around are posters that are three years old; you've really saved my organization a lot of money by not moving on this issue 'cause I don't have to use any new paper or markers.
That's right, you haven't, and I'm very excited that we're going to change things. I think there is a lot of agreement in 116 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 the room, although not about the interpretation of the equal protection clause. We do agree that the students in the City schools are predominantly low-income. 80 a day to attend middle and high school in the City. We do agree that while it's difficult to ascertain with absolute certainty the number of students who miss school regularly because they can't afford the fare, the number's large. Knock on many high school teacher's, counselor's or principal's door, and they'll tell you. We recently were told that between 17 and 25 percent of the kids in the academies miss 18 schools several times a month because of the cost 19 of tokens. We've spoken with counselors and 20 teachers in vo-tech schools who tell us about kids who drop out because they can't afford to travel to the school that they want to go to. We all agree in this room that the high cost of school transportation in this city is yet another barrier for kids and their families to have to get over to 117 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 get a decent education. At the last hearing on the subject, you heard from students and parents, and you'll hear from more today, who expose their problem and ask for help. It isn't easy to stand up and say "I didn't go to school today because I couldn't afford it" or "I didn't send my child today because of that," but you heard from parents and teachers and from community organizations who were trying to help. That was more than two years ago, and the kids are still waiting. During this period, PCCY went back to check on what other city districts were doing. We found that in New York, Chicago, or Detroit, students ride free if they live further than one and a half miles from school, and that in Boston and Pittsburgh, they ride free if they live two miles from school. The Boston students who live closer but still want to ride to school pay a substantially discounted rate of $13 a month. And in Los Angeles, the regular students pay a discounted rate of $20 per month, while the special ed. students pay $12 a month. As you heard last time and the time before, San Francisco 118 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 students have a youth pass, they pay $8 a month, and there's a movement now to reduce that further. All of in us this room agree that our kids deserve as good a chance as the students in those cities, but somehow we don't get there. When we started discussing this issue five years ago, the District had not issued identification cards to its high school students. That has changed. It's time for this situation to change as well. The schools could issue kids a card which is similar to what Councilman Mariano was suggesting earlier that allowed them to ride at a discounted rate, and SEPTA would accede to that, as it does for other categories of riders using swipe cards. There are many ways to find a solution; we simply have to agree to want to. There currently is agreement, I believe, and understanding on the numbers and process. 15, then discounts the tickets by cents and sells them to 13,000 24 public school students for 90 cents each. The 25 District also purchases its transfers for close to 119 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 60 percent of the students at 40 cents per transfer, and doesn't charge the students for the transfers; thus for the majority of students who ride, the District puts in plus 40, or 65 cents 6 per ride. For these costs, the State reimburses 7 the costs at 67 percent for public school students 8 and close to 75 for non-public. Thus for every 9 dollar of money we put in locally, for public 10 school kids, we get two-thirds back, and that 11 money stays in Philadelphia. 12 I believe there's agreement in this 13 body to do something about the high cost of 14 tokens.
In the past, we've urged that SEPTA 15 simply stop charging the District for transfers, 16 and the District put the savings into a pool to 17 lower the cost for tokens. We believe that made 18 sense. SEPTA would still be receiving full cost 19 for the tokens and would be providing its largest 20 customers a discount, and the kids would get a 21 break. We believe that the District using this 22 model it would be able to reduce the cost to the 23 kids to about 55 cents. That's significant, it 24 sends a message. It's not as good as in most 25 cities, but it's really a big step. 120 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 We're not wed to any one strategy, however. We come today urging that the City participate in some way in lowering the cost of transportation for kid these. There's history and there's need. Twenty years ago, the City used to participate in subsidizing the cost of student transportation. In recognizing the need, the City has been working on many initiatives with the School District now in reducing truancy. Now is the time to do more. We urge you not to discourage more kids, not to send the message that while you'd like to, you can't help them get to school. You can and you can do it now. The City could and should lower the cost of traveling to school for thousands of children. 3 million, the kids would have their cost lowered to about 55 cents. The State would reimburse the District by two-thirds, resulting in a net cost of under a million dollars for the City. You would be sending a powerful message. We urge you to do it now. Thank you. 121 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142
The next person testifying, state your name and proceed with your testimony. MISS REDDENBERG: Good morning. My name is Crystal Reddenberg. I'm on staff at the Philadelphia Student Union as Building Representative of West Philadelphia High School. I'm here to testify why a reduction on the price of tokens is important. If tokens prices are reduced, it will be more accessible for students so attend school. Tokens cost $9 per pack; that's $36 per month per student. And Philadelphia has a large percentage of low-income families, and in a household where there are four or more students attending school, that's $144 per month per household, which seems to me to be a ridiculous price to pay for a free education. Students in New York, Pittsburgh, and Erie and many other cities attend school for free. In Boston and San Francisco, they go to school for a third to a fourth of what we pay to go to school 122 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 for a so-called free education. Based on our informal surveys in my school, about 60 percent of the students have missed school at one point or another due to the fact that token prices are so high that they have no way to get to school. I am very aware that when the City wants something done, it gets done. And helping students get an education should be your number-one priority. It seems to me that SEPTA somehow could accommodate Penn employees last year with free transportation, but it's crucial to accommodate students with free transportation. If you want to keep youth off the streets, you have to help us get to school. It is a reality that a lot of families can't afford to pay money for multiple children to get to school. Young people end up on the streets, not by choice, and as a result, they end up in truancy court, get a criminal record, and possibly have to pay a fine. We need help getting to school every day, and since we look up to you as our leaders and since it is your responsibility, we ask you to 123 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 be a part of the solution and not the problem. If you don't think this is a crucial issue that stops students from getting to school, you can talk to many high school principals that come out of their pocket to help students get to students. Students are begging to get to school, and I don't think that is fair that we have to beg to get to school. We want to go to school, we want to learn, but we need your help. My colleague, Susan Oh, will present our plan on how to do this.
Thank you, Crystal. Susan, will your state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is Susan Oh. Good morning, Councilmen and women. I'm also a student staff member with the Philadelphia Student Union. I'm here on behalf of the 18,000 private, public, and parochial school students who take SEPTA to and from school every day. I'm here because, as Crystal HAS just said, there is a problem that plagues thousands of students. We have sat here many times before, but I'll repeat it again for emphasis. Although we 124 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 are supposedly receiving a free education, how free is this education if we are paying nearly $40 a month to even access it. Many Philadelphia students, particularly the public school students, live below the poverty line, and this $40 a month creates a major financial stress on every household. However, we have come up with a plan that would ease the financial burden of the excessive cost of transportation. The desired result of our plan is an overall reduction in cost from $9 per 10-pack of tokens to $5. We picked $5 because we believe that this would provide relief to many families without greatly increasing ridership and, thereby, ballooning the cost. Another measure that would help prevent an enormous unreasonable increase in ridership is to limit the reduced-price tokens to students who live at least one and a half miles from their respective schools. Presently, SEPTA is being paid full price for their tokens, which is $1.15 per token. The District pays cents per token as well as 25 the cost for transfers for about 60 percent of the 125 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 students. However, the overwhelming majority, 90 cents, is paid for by students. This adds up to $5.8 million every year. Bringing down the cost for students to $5 per pack creates a 40-cents difference that someone needs to pick up. The 40 cents per token is the difference necessary to drop the price, obviously, from $9 to $5. The total cost of doing this for the public and private school students before reimbursement from the State is $2.6 million. This is, simply put, 40 cents times 2 tokens per day times 180 school days times 18,000 students who buy tokens. The State currently reimburses the School District for public school students at a rate of about 67 percent, and for private school students at a rate of about 75. After reimbursement, the cost to the District only comes out to about $800,000. We strongly believe that there are people at the state legislator who can guarantee that the aid rations will remain at the same level. It is the least that they can do, and it does not even require new legislation. Even if there's an increase in 126 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 ridership -- let's say about percent due to the cheaper tokens -- the net cost would still only increase by about $40,000 to 840,000. In the long run, we want to figure out how to reduce the cost further, if not eliminate the cost for tokens. We also want to have swipe cards make system simpler. In the meantime, this is something that we can do right now that will greatly help many families in the City. There are many factors to take into consideration when looking into this issue. However, what it boils down to is whether or not the City will take responsibility for educating the millions of students in the area. If tens of millions of dollars can be found for metal detectors and hundreds of millions, if not billions, can be found for stadiums, it should be extremely easy to find the $800,000 that we are asking for to fund a cut in transportation costs. It is the least that we can do. It is a matter of prioritizing the needs of the City and taking the responsibility of educating all of the students, the future of this world. We always tell students how important 127 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 it is to get an education. Now it is time to put some action behind those words. (Applause.)
Thank you, Susan. Someone else to interfere testify please state in him for the record.
My name is Richard Weishaupt, and I'm an attorney with Community Legal Services, and I felt it incumbent upon somebody who has a law degree to put the lie to what Mr. Leary said. I have heard a number of things. And if SEPTA were sitting here and saying, Look, we can't afford, you know, we're a system that's strapped for cash and we just can't afford it, that would be an answer. It may not be an answer that everybody would accept, but it would be a legitimate answer. But to say that giving people rides violates equal protection -- I guess this is a different equal protection clause than the one that got Councilman Ortiz and me to school for free in New York City. The last time I looked, the United States Constitution applied to 128 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 everybody in every locale, and not just to school children in Philadelphia. To say that it would violate equal protection to give children free rides to school is about the biggest lie I have ever heard in these chambers. And I just think that for someone to say that, quite frankly, just means we don't care about children and we don't care if they go to school. And is Mr. Leary still here? You're free to come up and rebut me, but I have heard many ridiculous things, but this one takes the cake. I mean, is it a violation of equal protection to give senior citizens free rides? Is it a violation of equal protection to give the disabled free rides? Is it a violation of equal protection to give children 42 inches tall or less free rides? No, of course it isn't. And it is not a violation of equal protection to give children a free ride so they can go to school so they can get an education. Thank you.
You're welcome. 129 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 (Applause.)
Councilman Ortiz, do you have any questions for the panel?
Okay, thank you very much. Is there anyone else to testify?
I just want to just add that it is true that there has been interest on this Council's part for a long time, and it is true that, Mr. Chairman, you were not here for some of that time but --
And we would hope that within a very, very, very short period, we stop acknowledging the problem and really start being serious about a solution. It is -- there are kids who have aged 130 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 out, who have dropped out, who have aged out, and they've missed a chance because their family was embarrassed to beg all the time and because they didn't -- they couldn't make it and pay their energy bill and pay their rent and pay their food. It doesn't make sense as a society to do it. We do love our children as much as the kids are loved in Boston and New York; let's show it. (Applause.)
You know, it's just incredible and, like I said, mind-boggling that we keep talking about the children. And it's good rhetoric, it sounds good. But then when it comes time to really do something about it -- we have not had a meeting about children in this Council that lasted until midnight, o'clock in the morning, but we had a meeting in this Council about stadiums that went on till o'clock in the morning a few months back. But about children, we don't have that type of debate. And, you know, we got to be able to do something about that. And Richard is correct. And, Shelly, 131 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 you've been through this and I've been through this, and we've talked this issue to death. I mean, we have. And if Wilson goes back to the transportation hearings we had in prior years, he will see that everything that has been said today, what Mr. Leary has said today was said by Mr. Gambiccini (ph.). What you said today was said by you. What the students was said by other students prior to this.
And that is the difference between this hearing and the others.
Well, the thing is 132 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 that --
And that, in the end, is where the resolution is going to lie.
The difference between this hearing and any other is when we come up with some money.
And if it doesn't come from this hearing, then this hearing is the same as other hearings because all we have done is produced paper and information. And if we cannot --
Councilman, are you directing a question toward the witness table?
No, I'm making a statement to the witness because what she said is very true, and if we cannot, if we cannot, out of a $2.6 billion budget -- let's say SEPTA maintains they cannot do anything. Mr. Leary said they 133 4/2/01 PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, UTILITIES - RES. 142 can't do nothing. The equal protection clause protects them and prevents them. The School District has a deficit, they can't do anything. Well then, if we do something, it has to come -- the first step has to be taken by the City Council. And 2.7 -- 2.7 million or $3 million out of a $2.6 billion budget should not be difficult to find if we find all of the other subsidies for the developers and so on. And that's all I'm saying, and that's what should come out of this hearing, at least the will to do it.
This hearing is recessed till the call of the Chair. Thank you all for coming. (Adjourned 12:30 p.m.) 134 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Tuesday, April 3, 2001, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILITIES RES. NO. 000142, 000597 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter