SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
How do free ORCA cards and college fit in with affordability?
Feb 20, 2018, 3:46 PM | Updated: 5:29 pm
(Dyer Oxley, MyNorthwest)
(Dyer Oxley, MyNorthwest)
On Tuesday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan proudly announced that all of the city’s public high school students would get free, unlimited ORCA transit passes through her new plan. She also continued to push for two years of free college tuition for high school graduates.
“We need to make college a reality, for every Seattle public school graduate by investing in two free years of college education and support,” she said during her first State of the City address.
But how do either of those things fit in with the push to make the city more affordable? It’s going to cost millions to pay for those bus passes and make college free to students.
And what is the likelihood that students will even use free bus passes? As soon as they have their license and a car, they don’t want to ride a bus. But they’re still going to get an ORCA card. What percentage of kids will actually use them?
Also, how many of these ORCA cards will be lost and then replaced? Children don’t respect things they don’t have to earn. Will we have to create $100,000 city jobs just to keep track of all these lost ORCA cards?
Seattle is teaching children a horrible lesson: That as long as they vote Democrat, everything will be free.
Taken from Tuesday’s Dori Monson Show.
