Across the U.S. there’s a standard benchmark for gauging driver’s education programs: six hours of instructor-supervised street driving. Not simulators. Not driving ranges. Real world street driving.
That’s the minimum, many experts say, that is necessary for schools to prepare teens to slide behind the wheel safely. What’s certain is that, as a nation, we’re not doing enough to prepare many of those teens. Not when, in a typical year, we’re burying the 5,000 to 6,000 of them killed in crashes.
For years, however, some Illinois schools shortchanged students by spending more time on indoor simulators or driving ranges in parking lots. Some Illinois kids were getting as little as 1 hour and 40 minutes behind the wheel with an instructor.
Last year the state fixed that shortsighted practice and significantly strengthened its teen driving laws. As of July 1, every driver’s ed student must complete six hours of teacher-supervised street instruction.
Except for students in 19 schools. These schools — many of them in relatively wealthy districts — sought and received exemptions from the requirement. Why? Because their officials went whining to Springfield.
How long the exemptions are in force is unclear. The schools say five years because the House failed to act quickly enough on a bill that would have limited the exemptions to one year. The House missed the voting deadline by one day, state education officials said.
But Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, said last week that he expects the districts to “heed the intent” of the legislature and limit the waiver to one year.
One year? Five years? To us, a ny delay of this vital instruction is heading in the wrong direction because it shortchanges the students — and every other driver on the streets.
Simulators and parking lots are fine but don’t substitute for real, teacher-supervised, on-the-road driving with real on-the-road hazards. If a teen gets his or her training from a commercial driving school, the six hours is mandatory, no exceptions, according to the Illinois secretary of state’s office.
The districts argue that the legislature hasn’t delivered any new funding for the expansion of street instruction, which could cost some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars. And that’s true. No more money is likely to be forthcoming from the cash-strapped state.
So schools may have to raise fees to cover some of these expenses. No one’s happy about more fees. But schools need to find a way to get this done.
There are about 47,000 students in those 19 districts. We hope the parents of those in driver’s ed are heeding the new 50-hour minimum for co-piloting with their teens. That’s critical experience that teens also need to become safe and responsible drivers.
The schools need to match that commitment. Hiding behind waivers, for one year or five, won’t make a single one of those driver’s ed students a better, safer driver.
The 19 schools
* Lyons Township High School (La Grange and Western Springs)
* Cary-Grove High School (Cary)
* Crystal Lake Central and South High Schools, Prairie Ridge High School (all in Crystal Lake)
* Lake Park High School (Roselle)
* Naperville Central and North High Schools
* Oak Park and River Forest High School (Oak Park)
* St. Charles East and North High Schools
* West Chicago Community High School
* West Aurora High School
* Niles West and North High Schools (Skokie)
* Glenbard North High School (Carol Stream)
* Glenbard South High School (Glen Ellyn)
* Glenbard East High School (Lombard)
* Glenbard West High School (Glen Ellyn)
