In a letter addressed to schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and also sent to the five-member School Reform Commission, the Council members said changing the transportation policy in such a manner would contradict the citywide effort to cut the high-school dropout rate.

"With nearly 50 percent of school-district students dropping out before graduation, we can hardly afford a policy that discourages attendance," wrote the lawmakers, who urged that SEPTA, city and state education officials find a way to keep the current transportation policy intact.

Council's admonishment dovetailed with sentiments expressed by members of the public during two forums held Tuesday and yesterday at the school district's 440 North Broad Street administration building.

About 40 people, including two Council members and 16 other speakers, attended yesterday's meeting. All were against the proposed policy changes, which would impact seventh- through 12th-graders attending public, charter and nonpublic schools.

One proposal would extend from 1.5 miles or more to 2 miles or more the distance that students must live from school to be eligible to receive free SEPTA TransPasses. If adopted by the SRC, an estimated 7,000 students would lose service and the district would save $4.2 million.

A second proposal would require that students maintain 85 percent attendance to be eligible. An estimated 6,500 students would lose service and the district would save $4 million under this proposal. A third proposal calls for approving the other two.

The SRC has not set a date to vote on which proposal to adopt. School district Interim Chief Operating Officer Fred Farlino, however, has recommended that the mileage proposal be adopted because it would align the district's transportation policy with the state's and thus would allow for a larger reimbursement from the state for the cost of the passes.

City Council members Maria Quinones Sanchez and Curtis Jones Jr. told Farlino and other school officials during the meeting that taking students' TransPasses would increase truancy.

Jones also noted how difficult it is to get all 17 Council members to agree to anything, but how quickly they signed on to support students being allowed to keep their TransPasses.

Quinones Sanchez urged school officials to put off making a decision until Gov. Rendell's budget is adopted and until the city and school district can have further cost-savings talks.

"The issue is, there is already a task force between the mayor's office and the school district looking at cost savings," she told reporters afterward. "To now make a decision that doesn't need to be made today . . . without looking at what the state is really giving us, without coming back to the city, I think is not necessary."

Jones, who chairs Council's Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities, said he would ask SEPTA to find a way to help students from the 27 percent increase in operating funds and 32 percent increase in capital funds the transit authority recently received from the state.

"We can find some tokens and TransPass funds," he said. "To take transportation out of the hands of young people is to add to the excuse: 'The dog ate my homework.' "

Farlino noted that close to 50,000 students will still receive free TransPasses even if one of the proposals is adopted, and that those who ride yellow school buses will not be impacted.

"I think it's very impressive that the Council people are hearing from parents and I think it's very encouraging that they would want to open some dialogue with us regarding a solution to this other than the solutions that are on the table," he said.