At a press conference yesterday outside the busy 72nd Street subway stop, Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer called on the MTA to restore funding for student MetroCards.  As has been widely reported,  among  the  cutbacks to make up for a budget shortfall, the MTA is planning to cut funding for student MetroCards and require students to pay one-way fares next year, and full fare starting in 2011.

Stringer pointed out that the estimated cost of the Free-Fare Student Program is only about 2% of the total MTA budget and would affect some 400,000 students.  His office is circulating a petition torestore student MetroCards.

For a city where yellow bus service ends after 6th grade, and middle and high school students increasingly rely on subways and buses to get to school, officials say these  cuts will disproportionately affect the city's low-income students and families.

The student MetroCard cuts come the same month that thousands of  students submitted applications to middle and high schools, in many cases in districts and boroughs far from their homes.

How will the cuts affect school choice and your family? Do you think the MTA is unfairly targeting New York City students or is this a necessary move?