Students who go to a community or junior college usually are trying to save as much money as they can. When it comes to spending, transportation often takes up a lot of the budget, as most students drive themselves to school. 

As time goes on, students need to fill up their gas tanks weekly or even every other day. This is a big deal because some students don’t have jobs and are solely relying on financial aid.

As we see it now, gas prices are becoming more and more expensive. You can see this at any gas station. From up to $5.30 to $6 per gallon, students are starting to see a rise in how much a full tank costs. In a proposal made back in March by California legislators, there was a call for taxpayers to receive $400 to help pay for gas.

This number is a calculated estimate of how much people in California pay for gas taxes yearly, which is around $0.50 per gallon. This could tremendously help students who need transportation to school and back. Although this isn’t enough.

Students who are eligible at LMC can get an emergency grant which is $1,000. This can help many students and encourage them to not give up on college indefinitely and drop out because they can’t pay off their tuition.

Though this helps with school payments, students might not be able to get enough money to pay for food or even living expenses.  For those struggling with finding or paying for food, LMC has its Marketplace which operates a food bank available to students in need. There are a multitude of things that LMC offers for those in need. Although they still don’t exactly have enough for a student to prosper safely and successfully.

LMC should offer a gas emergency grant for those who can’t make it to campus or even resources on accessing free transportation available within the community. All students know of the transit system, but even then students still have to pay out of pocket for that. Especially if you’re a full-time student. Those who take at least or over 12 units should be able to have some sort of ability to get some money for gas. 

The staff of the Experience hopes for this proposition to come to fruition. As the school year progresses, hopefully we’ll see more and more opportunities to help out struggling students with financial barriers.