Free Rides for 10,000 Adult Students: A Consortium Partnership with the County Transportation Commission
Submitted By: Sean Abajian
Ventura County Adult Education Consortium
Website: https://www.vcaec.org/
Type of Practice: Equity
Program Area(s): ABE / ASE, ESL / EL Civics / Citizenship, CTE / Workforce Prep / Pre-apprenticeship, Adults with Disabilities
Region: Central Coast
Consortia Involved: Ventura County Adult Education Consortium
The Program of Practice
In the City of Moorpark, Principal Sean Abajian of Moorpark Adult School noticed that the local transit authority offered a Free Fare Program for college and high school students, but not adult students. After inquiring about including adult students he was informed that the decision was made at the county level.
The Response
As a member of the Ventura County Adult Education Consortium (VCAEC) Mr. Abajian asked in early October 2022 that an agenda discussion item be added regarding outreach to the Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) to request that they include VCAEC adult students. The Consortium responded favorably, encouraging him to reach out to the VCTC on its behalf. Over the next 3 months Mr. Abajian coordinated an agreement between the VCTC and his consortium which voted to approve the MOU and it was subsequently signed in December of 2022.
The Unique Features of the Program
The success of this program is, of course, that Ventura County adult students can now ride public transportation for free, thereby removing a significant barrier for current students as well as prospective students who don’t have to worry about the additional expense of transportation.
Furthermore, this is a success story for consortia statewide: Moorpark Adult School is a relatively small school, but as a member of VCAEC it was possible to leverage the resources and positioning of the Consortium to benefit not only the students of Moorpark, but students across Ventura County.
VCTC posted the names of all the participating adult schools on their website: https://www.goventura.org/about/college-ride-faq/ . A one-pager with sample IDs from each of the consortium members was provided to all of the bus drivers in the county. The way in which adult students ride for free is by showing the bus driver their adult school student ID.
The MOU between the VCTC and the Consortium states that “funding for the Program will come from revenue derived from the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program (LCTOP), which is one of several programs that are part of the Transit, Affordable Housing, and Sustainable Communities Program established by the California Legislature in 2014 by Senate Bill 862 using funds from the Cap-and-Trade program.” In the case of VCTC they were willing to include adult school students in the program already offered to college students. However, this does present an opportunity for CAEP leadership and adult school educators statewide to encourage lawmakers to specifically include K12 adult school students in a future bill.
The program also received some press coverage from local media outlets including the KCLU radio station: https://www.kclu.org/2022-12-21/theres-good-news-for-adult-education-students-in-ventura-county
The Outcome
As a result approximately 10,000 VCAEC students can access free public transportation in the county. For students who take the bus to school and work this represents savings of over $800 per year. Principal Abajian also gave a presentation on these efforts at the CCAE 2023 conference in Oakland sparking transportation related conversations with fellow educators from across California.