A report Sunday in the Charlotte Observer about state subsidies being withdrawn for driver education in high schools misses a critical fact.
The current program does not work.
A lack of objectives, monitoring, performance indicators and ineffectiveness were cited four months ago as continued failures by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), which is in charge of administering the state’s driver education program.
The lack of effectiveness can be found by the 180 people killed as a result of teen fatal accidents (ages 15-20) in North Carolina in 2012. Among the ten most populous states, North Carolina ties Texas with the highest percentage of teen-related deaths per 100,000 population. North Carolina needs a standardized curriculum immune to the vagaries of school personnel, DPI whims and driver instructor idiosyncrasies.
A 2011 driver education law required DPI to play a more active role in directing driver education, and the State Board of Education endorsed that initiative. However, in March the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee chastised DPI for numerous flaws in its oversight role. They noted:
• Sufficient and reliable data was not collected to determine efficiency and effectiveness of driver education. For example, 46 percent of students attempting the Department of Motor Vehicle license test have failed over the past six years – including students making multiple attempts. We maintain this is measurable failure.
• DPI was cited as also not collecting sufficient data to determine the total cost of driver education. In reality, no one knows exactly where the money goes.
• While all students are supposed to be taught from the same curriculum, DPI has allowed driver education to be delivered in a variety of ways with no assurance that all students receive the same caliber of education.
A national online driver education curriculum would provide the same professional information to students and it has already been successfully implemented in other states.
The big worry for students and future traffic safety is the same people who have failed so long so often are now being tasked to do a better job – after already having been told before to do so and failing. For example, DPI held a test of online instruction two years ago, but it didn’t monitor or track results. Conclusion: the test was poorly conducted with no definable results – even though DPI had been told to measure results.
A simple solution is online driver’s education. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has developed Novice Teen Driver Education and Training Administrative Standards to use online, and they are already successfully being offered by companies in other states.
North Carolina does not have to reinvent this wheel. Online driver education creates the right message every time for every student – and should make our roads safer.
