Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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OCTOBER 15-21, 2014 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM I still remember my North Carolina driver's training experience between my junior and senior years of high school. My particular class was taught by a young, good-looking high school football coach. The other student in my training car later married my best friend, both of which made for memorable training for me. But training it was, and I did learn a fair amount since my parents had not been much interested in letting me behind either of their wheels. I still had to learn how to drive a stick shift, though, as my father bailed out on that assignment on Pugh Street in Haymount, announcing he "could not stand it one second longer" and getting out of the car and walking home. That onerous task then fell to the afore mentioned best friend, who was indeed up to the job as we leapfrogged around Haymount, but that is another story. Suffice it to say that my parents and the taxpayers of North Carolina got their money's worth for whatever they paid for me to take driver's education. Blessedly, I have had no serious accidents, traffic citations in the single digits and just renewed my license for another eight years. The same can be said for the Precious Jewels with the exception of one serious crash caused by a senior citizen driver. My own experience and those of the Precious Jewels a generation later are why I am confident that the North Carolina General Assembly has made a grave and dangerous error by defunding driver's education in our state's public high schools. Young people must be taught how to drive safely, just as they must be taught to read and do basic math. To produce young people lacking such skills is not just detrimental to them personally. It bodes ill for the rest of us as well. Here is our current situation. For several generations, North Carolina has allowed 16-year-olds to get driver's licenses if they both take and pass an approved driver's education class, including driving with an instructor on public roadways and then passing the same written and driving tests taken by the rest of us. For almost all of that time, the state has appropriated funding to underwrite the required driving courses offered by local public schools. This meant that the courses were affordable for virtually all eligible students, and they — and we — were safer for their having had some formal driving instruction before getting behind the wheel. Sixteen-year-olds who did not take a course simply had to wait to apply for a driver's license until they were 18, presumably both older and a little wiser. They were also two years behind most of their contemporaries who were getting road experience daily, often driving to jobs that gave them a leg-up in the workplace. Factor in the reality that scientists cite increasing evidence that the human brain is not really mature until one's early to mid- twenties and therefore neither is human judgment, and it becomes clear that putting untrained teenage drivers on public roads is little short of nutty. With the recent and ill- advised removal of state funding by the General Assembly combined with a General Assembly directive that local schools charge students no more than $65 for driver's education, local schools — translation, local taxpayers like you and me, may be asked to underwrite that training to the tune of $200 or so per student. Alternatives, none too attractive, include private driving schools which are pricey and few and far between and students simply waiting until their 18th birthdays to seek a driver's license, generally without any training. How nervous does that thought make you? We might reasonably ask, "What we're our legislators thinking?" They were thinking about lowering taxes and getting brownie points with voters for doing so through what is called "cost shifting." The cost of driver's education remains the same even when the state cuts it out of its budget, so thr burden is often then shifted elsewhere. Since the cost that schools can charge is capped, the bulk of the cost could shift to local property taxpayers who fund a substantial portion of their local schools. Educators and parents across North Carolina are asking the General Assembly to restore state funding, about $26 million statewide and around $700,000 for Cumberland County schools, and with any luck they will come to their senses and do just that — pronto. I do not know about you, but I am a lot more concerned with public safety — yours and mine — on North Carolina roads than I am about a few dollars on my state tax return. MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com.. 910.484.6200. THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Daily Specials • Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner Fresh Seafood • Hand Cut Steaks • Homemade Desserts • Italian & Greek • Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests Contest&RequestLine: 910-764-1073 www.christian107.com KeepingtheMainThing...theMainThing. visitusonline FocusontheFamily 20Countdown Magazine Adventures in Odyssey Young, Untrained and Behind the Wheel by MARGARET DICKSON The N.C. General Assembly has cut funding for driver's education in public schools, a move many believe will leave the roads a lot less safe.