Driver's education funds drying up during NC legislature budget fight

Shelby High School Principal David Allen has watched a dwindling number of student drivers pull into his school since North Carolina reduced its funding for driver’s education in 2012.

Now, as the North Carolina legislature threatens to defund the program, dozens of the state’s public school districts have slammed the brakes — leaving tens of thousands of students without a course to earn their permit.

The N.C. House’s budget proposal would allocate funding for driver’s education, but the N.C. Senate has proposed an alternative budget that lacks funding for the program.

Allen, whose son writes for The Daily Tar Heel, said Shelby — which offered free and reduced lunch to 62.7 percent of the student body in 2013-14 — saw significant drops in enrollment when it charged $38 per student for the course to compensate for lower state contributions after the 2012 cuts. Public high schools across the state received more than $26 million in 2013-14 to offer a subsidized driver’s education program.

The school lost a demographic of students who took driver’s education for the experience, not for the promise of a license when they turned 16, Allen said. But without the required liability insurance necessary to receive their permit anyway, these students have little incentive to pay higher rates at their school or for private instruction.

“To me, it doesn’t matter if we charge $38 or $138. Those kids are not going to pay it,” he said.

A former driver’s education teacher himself, Allen has seen his share of emergency brake situations in behind-the-wheel instruction. He said without the six hours of supervised driving time and six hours of observation included in driver’s ed, students might be at a serious disadvantage when they get on the road.

“There were a number of students who on the first day of behind-the-wheel training were not prepared to be on the roads at all,” he said.

N.C. Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, aimed to alleviate the state’s financial restraints by proposing a driver’s ed test that would substitute the state-funded program: Students would only have to score 85 percent on a written test that could be taken without any prior class. Another proposal from the state Senate recommends transferring the driver’s education program to community colleges.

But Allen said testing requirements cannot replace the experience of the classroom and hands-on instruction.

Tony Moore, president of N.C. Driving School, which provides behind-the-wheel instruction for many public school districts, said that in his 47 years of experience, the current dilemma is the most ridiculous thing he’s seen.

“Why do (politicians) want to play with people’s lives?” Moore said. “Because they can?”

He said he believes the move to suspend funding is a power play by members of the N.C. Senate, who are less vulnerable to pushback from individual districts than those of the N.C. House.

Moore said Gov. Pat McCrory also excluded driver’s ed funding from the budget.

“That shows how educated he is,” Moore said.

Tim Beck, director of transportation for Rowan-Salisbury School System, said the state’s earlier cuts have made huge impacts on the program’s ability to purchase new cars and materials. Beck said even charging $65 per student would not recuperate the state’s previous funds.

“We’re still two-thirds short, which is roughly $250,000 short,” he said.

Meanwhile, frustrated students and parents have turned to private driving services to fill the gaps left by uncertain funding.

Edward Rincon, owner of Durham’s Andes Driving School, said business has boomed, jumping about 60 percent since districts suspended their programs.

Private instruction for driver’s ed peaks as high as All Around Driving School’s summer tuition, which is set at $550 — compared with public school districts’ previous maximum price of $55.

Despite these prices, Allen said he believes families who can afford it will begrudgingly pay the price of private instruction.

“I think there are creative ways they can do things with their funds in Raleigh,” Allen said. “I really hope that we don’t lose the program.”

@CLRlyCorey

state@dailytarheel.com