Representative Phillips has introduced House Bill 339 in the Texas legislature.  There are parts of this bill that I believe will help produce safer drivers in Texas and parts that will not.  I am grateful that Representative Phillips has introduced this bill and hope that the parts of the bill likely to produce safer drivers become law.

Parts of the bill that will produce safer drivers

1. The Collision Rate Statistics Publication.  This requires that the department track the collision rates of the students for each of the entities that offer driver education and publish the data annually.  This will provide the consumer an opportunity to choose a driver education program based on the effectiveness of each entity and course.  Hopefully, this will induce the operators and instructors of driver education courses to focus more on producing safer drivers rather than simply obtaining a driver license.
2. The DPS will no longer waive the driving test for minors.  While there may be no clear evidence that reinstituting this requirement will produce safer drivers, it will satisfy the perception that testing by the DPS is better than the DPS not giving the road test.
3. The number of hours of behind-the-wheel instruction is being increased from 7 to 34.  This is a major step in the right direction.  Unfortunately, the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency has the authority to determine how many of the hours must be provided by an instructor and how many may be provided by a licensed adult.
4. Once an original license is issued there are restrictions up to 12 months (previously this was for 6 months) and the “curfew” time has been moved from midnight to 10 p.m.  The restrictions regarding no more than one passenger under age 21 (except family members) and the prohibition from using a wireless device are still included.  Certainly extending the restriction to 12 months is likely to produce favorable results.

Parts of the bill that will NOT produce safer drivers

1. Each school district is required to offer driver education during the school year and may charge a fee comparable to a commercial driving school.

I believe that this is a mistake.  Mandating that each school district offer driver education during the school year is tantamount to endorsing public school driver education when there is no evidence that these programs will produce safer drivers.  That is the purpose of the “Collision Rate Statistical Publication” part of this bill.  It seems to me that we might want to identify what programs work before we begin to mandate them.

Historically, where driver education is mandated, commercial driving schools tend to be fewer.  If your goal is to eliminate commercial driving schools as a viable alternative to public schools, making driver education mandatory in public schools may put you on a track to do that.

What impact would this have on students who attend private schools and homeschoolers?  If many of the commercial schools are eliminated, and the parents do not want or are not eligible for parent-taught driver education, then how receptive are the public schools likely to be when it comes to accommodating them for space in a driver education class?

Also, since public school driver education only accounts for about 30 % (or less) of the driver education market, the infrastructure that was once in place to create “certified” driver education teachers is barely alive.  Try to find a local college or university that offers college courses to certify driver education teachers.

Of course, the public schools could contract with the commercial schools (some do now) or simply have the students take the classroom online if they don’t want to give it themselves.  Neither one of these alternatives has historically been effective in producing safer drivers.

2. Allowing the commissioner to determine how many hours of behind-the-wheel instruction are to be provided by an instructor.

As I mentioned earlier, requiring 34 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction is a step in the right direction. However, since there is no minimum requirement of behind-the-wheel instruction that has to be taught  by the licensed instructor, the commissioner has a free hand to establish any standard he/she chooses.  This could be dangerous because there is no accountability built into whatever standard the commissioner may choose.  And once a standard is chosen, it is very difficult to change.  I am very uneasy with this portion of the bill for that reason.  I would be much more comfortable if the instructor has a minimum requirement of at least 10 to 12 hours of behind-the-wheel instruction.