Time for a U-Turn: The Importance of Bringing Back Funding For Driver’s Ed

“Click it or ticket!” the changing light board on the interstate read as we drove past. “3,240 traffic deaths in April”, the next one read. How odd, I thought, as my mom continued down the road, the first board threatened a ticket, a possible fine, the next threatened death. They were two vastly different consequences, both for the same offense: irresponsible driving. It begs the question: what should one actually be worried about when they choose to drive irresponsibly? Is a ticket really the reason we need to buckle up, or is there much, much, more at stake, and if so, why don’t we ever talk about it? Furthermore, is irresponsibility the reason for most traffic accidents, or is it really just an outcome fueled by a more concerning reason: improper driver’s education?

I was a sophomore in high school when I got a small glimpse of what’s really at stake when someone chooses not to wear a seatbelt. I remember being in history class, hearing about the death of an upperclassmen: a death by car accident. As the talk circulated throughout the school day, I learned that the student was with a friend, speeding on the highway, no seatbelt on. I could picture it in my mind. They must have thought they were just having fun. I specifically remember hearing about how the young man who passed away was the brother of a girl in my grade. A girl I saw everyday; one I was sure I had a few classes with here and there. One day her brother is home and well, the next he leaves to hang out with a friend, and the next their family hears of him is that he’s dead. How could they even process that? How could she come back to school? He’s just gone. There was no “click it or ticket!” for him. He suffered a much greater consequence.

Reflecting on this makes me realize that while “click it or ticket!” has a nice ring to it, it might be better to share the real consequences of driving without a seatbelt on. Drivers should ask themselves, “What is the reason for receiving a ticket when I don’t wear my seat belt?”. “Click it or ticket” focuses on the legal consequence of not wearing one’s seatbelt, rather than the actual threats to a person or people’s safety when they choose not to wear a seatbelt. Unfortunately, phrases like “click it or die!” and “click it or be paralyzed for the rest of your life!”, don’t have as nice a ring to them as “click it or ticket!”. That’s why instead of trusting in a memorable phrase such as “click it or ticket!” to ensure drivers use their seatbelts, there should be a greater focus on creating more opportunities to educate young drivers on the real consequences of not buckling up.

It shouldn’t stop at buckling up though. With more opportunities to educate young drivers on driving safely, instructors could go over topics such as driving impaired, driving while on a cell-phone or mobile device, driving with high distractions in the vehicle, and even things like what to do when your car breaks down on the road, or what to do when an ambulance or school bus is driving by. While these are all things many students learn in drivers ed, it is very easy for teenagers to gloss over the importance of them with the way driver’s education is structured in our generation.

Personally, I took my driver’s ed course online, and while it was convenient to be able to do it in my own timing, it introduced many potential problems for young people learning how to drive. One of these problems is the lack of accountability. While the online course does require its students to take a quiz over every lesson, it is entirely possible for a student to pay no attention to the lesson, letting the videos play through on their computer while they scroll on their phone, and then using their phone to look up the answers once they get to the quiz. I’ve seen many classmates do similar things with school assignments throughout high school, so who’s to say teens wouldn’t do the same with their at-home, online driver’s ed course? The other problem that driver’s ed poses for our generation is the cost. The average cost for a driver’s ed course is nine hundred and thirty-seven dollars. That’s almost a thousand dollars for a parent to put their child through a proper driver’s education. While the response to that may be to say “well that’s just how it is,” it doesn’t have to be that way.

Up until the 2000’s, schools taught and, in many cases, required drivers ed courses for free. The benefits of this were immense. Each student, driver or not, was sure to be educated in safe driving habits. Because these classes were part of the school day, there was no need to take up extra time outside of school, and there was no need for online driver’s ed because each student was able to take it in person. Parents didn’t need to worry about, or even try to decide whether or not they would be paying for their children’s driving education, it was simply built into their school day. All this being said, schools stopped offering the course around 1990, and by the 2000’s, driver’s ed in public schools was becoming history. So it begs the question: If having a required drivers ed course in school holds so many benefits, why would they stop offering it?

Unfortunately, in the years circa 1980, budget cuts began to put a strain on the amount of electives that public schools were able to offer. One of the electives that ended up getting cut across public schools was driver’s ed. While in the past drivers could be positive that most of the people they drove on the road with had gotten their driver’s education while in school, drivers now have quite the opposite assurance. Driver’s ed has become more or less of a choice. While some states do require drivers ed for one to get a driver’s license, many states do not, meaning that there are many people driving today that have almost no driving education at all. The most a person without a driver’s education might have is a number of supervised driving hours, but that’s not a very comforting thought considering there’s no way of knowing who’s doing the supervising.

The lack of accessibility, accountability, and realization for the importance of driver’s ed courses for young drivers is one of the biggest, if not the biggest challenge that teen drivers face today. The best solution to this problem is to bring back funding for drivers ed courses in public schools. How can this happen? One: Raise awareness of the importance of driver’s education by acknowledging the dangers of teen driving in our generation and making them known. Two: explore what electives are more necessary than others in public schools; it is truly hard to believe that a course such as drivers ed, one that teaches safe, everyday, life-saving habits is less suitable for funding than other electives offered at many public schools. With the information you gather from step two, and the support you gather from step one, go to step three: Make contact. Reach out to your local school board and see how you can work together to fight for funding for driver’s ed across public schools.

When I heard about my classmate’s brother dying in a car crash, I realized that reality of young driver’s safety. Many teenagers in my generation drive everyday with a lack of proper driver’s education, and will go on driving that way, most likely passing it on to the next generation unless we decide to do something about it now. As a generation that has experienced the lack of free, required drivers ed, and because of that has witnessed the consequences of it in many of our peers’ lives, we have the incredible opportunity to come together and prove why there needs to be a change. It all starts with a proper driver’s education, and many people won’t have that unless there’s funding for free, required driver’s ed in public schools. So let’s buckle up and hit the gas on making a change in the future of driver’s ed!