Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Thank You State Rep. Yvonne Davis

Thank you to my State Rep. Yvonne Davis for introducing a bill to split up Dallas ISD. It is no secret that many people have become so disgusted with the way the Dallas ISD is ran that they have begun to contemplate how to dismantle the system and start anew. I applaud Rep. Davis for her courage to even bring up this idea and hope that she is able to get her colleagues to understand the current frustration and the need for change.

The schools that are predominately in the African American community are falling apart with little or no maintenance to the facility. Tenured teachers are being fired and are leaving the district in large numbers which directly affect the education of students. The quality of education for African American students has declined through the years. Parents, students and taxpayers deserve a better education for all children.

DART Fare Increase

DART had a fare increase about two years ago which brought the fare to the current $3.00 per day. DART now want to increase the fare to $4.00 dollars per day. So within 2 years the fare will almost double.
When I was on the DART Board, the financial plan showed a fare increase every five years and that seemed okay as long as it could be justified.
The fare box does not and will never pay for the service. All public transit (bus,rail and para-transit) is subsidized at different levels.
It would be okay to talk about a fare increase if DART had made sure that they looked at all alternatives to increasing the fares on transit dependent riders. DART has several hundred contract employees who ride the system for FREE. DART sells the most expensive passes ($800.00)to cities for $40.00 to pass on to their employees. DART pays over a million dollars a year to assist with shuttle service (SMU, T.I., UTD). DART spends over $500,000 per year on the McKinney Avenue Trolly. DART allows some college students to ride for free. DART runs what is called an "On-Call" service to areas that do not have enough ridership to justify a bus route. These are just some of the issues that need to be addressed before raising the fare.