Adult Learner Transportation Subsidy Pilot Program

Colleagues,

For many adult basic skills programs student services such as childcare, on-site advising and counseling, and transportation are difficult or impossible to get funded. This article from Street Sense Media offers information about a new pilot transportation subsidy in Washington D.C. (in the District itself) for adult basic skills learners. This is the pertinent paragraph:

Lecester Johnson, CEO of Academy of Hope Adult Public Charter School, testified on the barrier of transportation costs that hinder low-income adult learners’ ability to get to school. Deputy Mayor Niles recently partnered with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) to launch the Adult Learner Transportation Subsidy Pilot Program, which from Jan. 1 to June 2018 will provide adult and alternative learners with $50 per month for transportation costs, with the goal of improving attendance rates. Johnson called for DDOT to continue the pilot program for a full school year.   

Is this unique or is there support for adult learner transportation in other parts of the country? How does your state, county, city or town, or program. meet this need?

In the 1990's, in rural Massachusetts, low income adult learners didn't have a reliable form of transportation to get to their adult literacy program. As a participatory adult learner project to address this problem they created their own transportation service, bought a van and drove it themselves. They also learned a lot about public transportation and social change activism. Read more about this in the Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook Edited by Andy Nash. The transportation project is described on pages 149 - 151. There are many other fascinating projects described in this handbook.

 

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Program Management group

djrosen123@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Our community, Rock Hill, South Carolina, does not have much in the way of public transportation. We are advocating for more.  Some students report they often cannot attend because of transportation barriers. Teachers and support staff have on occasion been know to pick up students on their way to work, and take them home after work.

Hi Brett,

I wonder if you have had a chance to look at The Civic Action and Community Participation Sourcebook short article, "Transportation on the Move," on page 149,  http://www.worlded.org/WEIInternet/inc/common/_download_pub.cfm?id=13852&lid=3  In the article, your students can read about how a group of students and their teacher(s) from a rural area in Massachusetts researched their public transportation problem and came up with a solution and successfully implemented it. Perhaps after they read the article, your students might be interested in a project to study their own situation in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and come up with their own solution(s). Or have they have already done this?  If so, let us know what they have learned, how they are advocating for changes in local public transportation, and how that's going.

David J. Rosen