Oregon Public Broadcasting

Every public school student in Oregon will now have access to a free ride to school – thanks to an agreement adopted Wednesday by Portland city leaders.  Rob Manning reports.

Nearly every student in Oregon gets a free ride to school on a yellow bus – except for high schoolers in Eugene and Portland.

In Eugene, high school students have gotten free passes to ride public transit for years.

Now, with a $3.3 million agreement involving city, transit, school, and youth leaders, 13,000 Portland teens will also get free passes.

Lincoln High senior, Lewis Wheatley spoke in support of the program.

Lewis Wheatley: “A lot of other students are going to start using public transportation, even if they’ve never used it before, and we’re creating a new generation of public transit users, as well as getting a lot more cars off the road.”

There’s no city money in the deal, assuming officials can sell $2.5 million in Business Energy Tax Credits to qualifying companies.

The Portland school district is kicking in $800,000 – the same amount it had already budgeted to cover bus passes for low-income students.