A free student bus pass is great - if you can get it

"Each time he takes the bus, he has to scrape together $1.35, the youth discount fare, for a total of up to $54 a month. Sometimes, when he doesn't have the money, he ends up asking his friends for cash. Or he'll ask a bus driver to give him a break and just let him board without paying. Often he avoids the hassle and just bicycles the whole way, returning home exhausted after evening practice sprinting with the track team."

"Alameda County launched a program 10 years ago that offers free bus passes to tens of thousands of public school students, including every kid in an Oakland public school. The tax-funded program is supposed to make sure students from low-income families can get to class. Stephan said he applied for the card long ago. He just never received it."

"We've applied every year, God, I think since Stephan was in middle school, his mom, Jessica Myers, said. Stephan is now a sophomore. When we spoke, they said they'd been waiting for the free pass for three years. Stephan is hardly alone. Brean Melgoza, a ninth grader at Madison Park Academy, said he applied for his free bus pass last August and only received it in April."

"Same for Santiago Morfin Romero, a sophomore at Oakland Tech. Bailey Lake-Short, a junior at Oakland School for the Arts, said she waited three months after applying to get her free pass. For Twyla Hoshida, a sophomore at Oakland High, it took a year and a half to get her pass; she said she finally received it"

Stephan Myers commutes 11 miles from East Oakland to Oakland Technical High School and spends nearly an hour each way. He says the main issue is the bus fare, which costs $1.35 per ride and can total up to $54 per month. When he lacks money, he sometimes asks friends for cash or asks a driver to let him board without paying. To avoid the hassle, he often bicycles the route, which leaves him exhausted after track practice. Alameda County launched a tax-funded program offering free bus passes to public school students, including Oakland students. Stephan applied years ago but never received the card, and his family reported waiting for three years. Other students reported similar delays, ranging from months to a year and a half.

Read at The Oaklandside