Focus on safe drivers, not convenience

The home school-taught driver's education bill is a step backward to the 1930s and '40s. State laws were minimal and drivers were doing their own thing back then.

Driving has evolved into a complex task that requires being able to safely interact with other drivers. There has to be a common starting point to meld together all the individual, initial parent-taught driving styles into safe and acceptable driving habits and skills for young drivers. Driver education has played a vital role in this endeavor.

By allowing home school-taught driver's education these individual parent styles will again be put into practice without that agency to bind them together into acceptable practices and habits.

Too many of today's drivers don't respect the rules of the road. Hence, the birth of red-light and speed cameras. Will home school driver's education be able to correct or add to this problem?

My education as a driver's education instructor involved training on best practices, common errors and corrections. Home school parent driver's education teachers would be allowed to teach driver's education with no formal training other than following a curriculum. At stake is public safety and lives destroyed. Does convenience and low cost outweigh safety?

Ken Huelman

Driver educator for 40-plus years

Vinton