Bill would beef up driver’s ed

JEFFERSON CITY — In the wake of the November deaths of two mid-Missouri teens — Paige Siddall, 17, and Derek E. Struckhoff, 18 — education and safeguards are being proposed for Missouri’s newest drivers.

A bill introduced in the Missouri House on Jan. 25 by Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, would require Missouri high schools to offer driver’s education to students. The bill would also prohibit younger drivers from using a cell phone on the road for any reason other than emergencies.

Young drivers caught using a cell phone while driving with a temporary instruction permit or an intermediate license will be fined $20 for the first offense and $50 for the second.

Baker said that not using a cell phone while driving will improve teen drivers’ safety.

The legislation would institute a driver’s education course to students 15-years old and older through the Missouri Virtual School. Baker said the 30-hour curriculum would be accessible to students after they acquire driving permits to prepare them for a permanent license. She cited incentives in the bill that would allow students who complete the course early to apply for a permanent license 90 days earlier than their peers.

The bill would help low-income families pay the estimated $200 cost of the virtual school courses with “certain driver’s license fees” that would be increased by $2 and placed into a driver’s education fund. Baker said she hopes the cost of the courses will be less than the initial $200 estimate.

Currently there are no driver’s education programs in Columbia’s public high schools.

Lynn Barnett, assistant superintendent of Columbia Public Schools, said that a barrier to driver’s education is a lack of instructors.

She said Columbia’s schools did have a driver’s education course when she graduated from Hickman High School in 1969 “and for some time on.”

Brent Ghan, a spokesman for the Missouri School Board Association, said driver’s education has been a victim of school budget cuts and an increasing focus on academics that has gradually crowded out the program over the past decade.

Jim Morris, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Education, said that in a report for the 2005-06 school year, 50 school districts offered driver’s education, serving about 8,500 students. This is a decrease from five years ago, when, Morris said, 86 school districts offered driver’s education to about 11,300 students. There are 524 school districts in Missouri.

Baker said the online classes would not take the place of the 40 hours of driver’s instruction that a student now must complete to receive a permanent license.

Baker said she expects Marty Siddall, Paige’s father, to testify about the bill at a House committee hearing at noon today in the Capitol.