It’s been available for school students in Ventura County for some time, but for the first time, adult school students in the county will have access to free public transportation.
"I thought to myself that it would be really nice if we could include adult school students, " said Moorpark Adult School Principal Sean Abajian - who was pivotal in creating the program.
Abajian recently coordinated an agreement between the Ventura County Adult Education Consortium and the Ventura County Transportation Commission to provide free bus fare for adult school students countywide.
“We serve a lot of students who are at or below the poverty line,” Abajian said. “We all know budgets have been tightening for families, and this is one additional way we can provide support for current students or prospective students.”
Abajian said the new agreement allows adult education students to not only ride the bus for free to and from class but to also take public transportation anywhere in the county.
“They can take the bus to work, a doctor’s appointment, for shopping or to visit someone,” the principal said. “It’s for wherever they need or want to go.”
He says that given high gas prices and rising inflation, free transportation will benefit thousands of students.
"We are removing barriers for students - adult students - whoa re at or below the poverty line and enabling them to do more," he told KCLU.
“If a student were to take transit for free to work, the annual savings would be around $500,” he said. “And those savings grow when students use public buses to get to school or to do errands.”
Abajian said, "We want folks in our community to have access to adult education,” he said. “By removing these barriers, we open doors for them. It’s beneficial to not only the student, but their family and, consequently, our community as a whole.”
The new free transportation program should be available to students in the very near future.
