By Samantha Velez

The only gateway to success is education. Go to school. Learn. Be somebody. How can the youth of New York City become successful when their only ride to education has been taken away? As a student, I am enraged by the proposal to cut student MetroCards.

I have seen how this issue affects all students, many who cannot afford the daily transportation costs, students who have to travel from borough to borough just to get to school, and students just like me that have to work extra hard because of living conditions. 

Like many students, I live in a single parent household with multiple siblings. My mother has to work hard just to send us to school. Sometimes she has to choose whether to pay our tuition or pay one of the bills. It’s not fair that now she has to worry about paying our bus fares to get to school. What happens when I can no longer go to school?

What happens to all the students that have to move from their current schools to zoned schools which are already overcrowded? What will become of the youth when they turn to the streets because they can no longer go to school, because that is what is going to happen. Once MetroCards are cut, students will be forced out of their comfort zone and placed into situations that will put them at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I don’t think that the MTA, city, or state really understands how this cut will affect everyone. When students no longer have MetroCards, parents have to work hard and make more money to send their children to school. Some may even have to take on a second or third job. When students can no longer go to school, who are the teachers going to teach? Are they going to teach empty desks? No. They are going to lose their jobs, and since there are no students to teach, schools might even be shut down. Please explain how we are supposed to be part of the Race to the Top when there are no students to participate. President

Obama says that by 2020 graduation rates will be at their highest levels. How is that possible when students are not even in school? 

I understand that we are in a recession, but how is it that the MTA can find money to place into projects like the Fulton Transit Center and at the same time say there is no money for student MetroCards? What gives Mayor Bloomberg the right to call himself our educational leader when he could not care less about the students, shutting down schools and taking away our MetroCards? How can we trust Governor Paterson when he says that he will not allow the MetroCards to be cut, when he has not even bothered to work with us students? Open your eyes and realize that the youth must be a priority, and you must give us what we deserve – our right to education.

Samantha Velez, 17, is a leader in the youth organization Sistas and Brothas United (SBU) and a student at St. Barnabas High School.