A lot of students think that school parking is too expensive. Jonah Sloss, a student at SPASH argues that students should not have to pay $50 for parking. According to Jonah, “The students at the school should not have to pay for parking, the city should.” Although Jonah does have a valid point, this would also take away money going toward other areas not related to the parking lot. The school would also not have as high a budget to spend. The new addition to the school which expanded the cafeteria would most likely not happen without help from parking money.

Collectively, parking permits raise large amounts of money. I noticed that University parking is overwhelmingly higher than high school parking. According to Mustang News, in one year,  “$5,000,000 was raised from the parking fees alone,” at California Polytechnic University”. Obviously SPASH does not have that much revenue coming in, but it still will add up because there are hundreds of people that park in the parking lot. 

According to the SPASH Vice Principal Mr. Haka, the cost of parking does go toward the lot. “Parking fees toward maintaining the quality of the parking lot and if the parking lot is already in good condition, it will go toward other school costs in the building such as maintenance.” This is similar to other schools such as Amherst HS. An article written by journalist Shelley Westerson from Mustang News wrote an article on why students should pay for parking.  “Money also goes into ongoing maintenance of parking facilities and the eventual resurfacing [of] the lot.” So yes, other schools also reserve money for building costs.

Lastly, parking permits should be required because it helps with security. Without parking permits at SPASH, random people would be able to park wherever they feel like they want to. Since there are parking permits at SPASH, students are required to have one otherwise they will get a ticket from the police. SPASH student Ella Page says “It’s kind of a hassle to pay the ticket but it definitely lets people know they should get one”. She had gotten a ticket at SPASH for forgetting to get her parking ticket. This helps security by making sure the people parking at SPASH actually go to the school.

To conclude, SPASH should require students to have a parking permit. Obviously there are many benefits of students having parking permits at SPASH. Without the parking permits, the parking lot would have a lot of damage due to winter and other factors. The actual building benefits from the school if the parking lot is already in fair condition. Students also will benefit from higher security in the parking lot since cars must require a permit, enforced by the police. This is an indirect benefit that doesn’t cost students any money.