5/17/2009 6:00:00 AM Optimists hope to make driver's ed program grow Scholarships helping teens get licenses
Driving instructor Dave Jones points the way as freshman Heyley Pollei navigates the Verona Area High School parking lot last week with fellow driver’s ed students Jasmine Leidich and Malik Watson in back. With driver’s education no longer paid for by many schools, including Verona, many students have to put off getting their licenses until age 18.
A plea for help with the high cost of driver's education classes has gotten no traction with the city yet, so a local nonprofit organization is taking matters into its own hands.
The Verona Optimists have allocated $2,800 to be used for seven free rides for low-income or at-risk students. Four have been awarded already to Verona Area High School students, and three more will be awarded after the Optimists get recommendations from City of Verona Municipal Judge Bill Weigel.
"It's an exciting and positive project the Optimists have going," Weigel said. "It can give some people some hope and some empowerment they wouldn't otherwise have."
The Verona Area School District, like most school districts around the state, no longer provides driver's education for free, as it did when their parents' generation was in school. As a result, kids who can't come up with the $400 but need or want to work a part-time job - or simply be like other students - find themselves in a pickle.
"Getting your driver's license is a rite of passage for most kids, right?" said Optimists member Holly Dowling. "(Not getting a license) sets them up to run into problems with the law."
Dowling's husband, Dane County court commissioner Todd Meuer, brought up the issue at the city's Public Safety and Welfare committee in January 2008. In his job, he told the city, he regularly sees the "snowball effect" of not having a license - kids who can't afford them drive anyway so they can work, get caught and have even more trouble getting a license. And because they're not trained, they are more likely to be uninsured or flee the scene of an accident.
Weigel sees those problems frequently in Verona.
"I could go on and on about the problems of young, unlicensed drivers and some of the overlaid problems that carries to them and to others," he said. "We're talking truancy problems, inability to get a job or to get to work or maintain a job, assisting others or just being out there not being trained how to drive and getting into accidents and getting into trouble ... (It's) a vicious cycle."
That's why the Optimists decided to fund a "trial run," Dowling said, with a program as part of the group's ultimate mission - being the "Friend of Youth" and improving the community in general.
The Optimist driver's education program for Verona is based on other programs in several Wisconsin high schools.
The Milwaukee public school system, for example, has established a $500,000 annual program to combat teenagers driving without a license. According to information provided by the Verona Optimists, nearly half of Milwaukee's 16-17 year old teenagers do not have a license or a permit.
The problem isn't as bad here yet, but it's getting worse.
Though not every 16-year-old chooses to get a license, some simply can't. A survey of 16-year-olds at VAHS last year showed that 105 of 119 non-low-income kids (88 percent) had licenses while only 49 of 119 low-income students did.
Ten scholarships - seven from the Optimists plus three that were given away in a lottery at VAHS this year - barely makes a dent in that problem, but it's a start.
The first four were "hand-picked" from a handful of applicants. Dowling said many other students heard about the program too late this year, so she expects a bigger pool if the program continues.
"The need is much greater than the number of applicants," she said. "My hope is that we do this again next year."
For the other three Optimist scholarships, Weigel has been asked to provide names of teens who have been ticketed for driving without a license - perhaps while going to work - but are otherwise good candidates to stay on the straight and narrow.
"This seems like just a very positive project, and I'm glad to be asked to participate," he said.
Other states have already started to address this problem, according to a news release from the Optimists.
Oregon tried a "parent program approach" and found that it was not as successful as a certified driver's education program, which produced a decrease in accidents, fewer traffic convictions fewer license suspensions, the release said. As a result, it switched to a drivers education fee reimbursement program (up to $210 per student).
Georgia and Pennsylvania have organizations that reimburse low-income teens for driver's education courses.
Milwaukee's growing program allows students to earn free driver's ed programs if they keep their grades up, perform community service and attend after-school programming. And the city's recreation department offers classes at a slightly discounted rate.
But statewide and in CESA 2, a large group of school districts in and around Dane County, there are no such programs.
"To the best of my knowledge there's not a school around that subsidizes driver's ed except for Sun Prairie and Stoughton, because they handle it themselves," said Kurt Schultz, the driver's education coordinator for CESA 2.
It's been a growing problem ever since the state stopped making driver's education mandatory for graduation and got worse when the state stopped providing $100-per-student reimbursements in 2005. As driver's ed teachers retired and districts began outsourcing their programs (Verona used Southwest Technical College before contracting with CESA 2 seven years ago), they stopped contributing to the cost.
About 30 percent of Wisconsin school districts contract out, including most of CESA 2, and only one-third consider driver's ed part of their curriculum (and therefore must offer it free), according to a DPI survey last year.
And for many students, that $300-$500 cost is a big chunk of change.
"There really needs to be some funding for these low-income kids," said Karen Coyle, the online coordinator for CESA 2's driver's ed program. "I do know that the state is beginning to look at the potential of providing grants for low-income students, but that could be years down the road."
Until then, Dowling is hoping communities step up and chip in.
"What I would love is for people to say this is a good cause, I'd love to help," she said.
For information or to donate, call the Verona Optimist Club at 845-2262.
