SENATE BILL TO MANDATE DRIVER EDUCATION; TEACHERS SUPPORT PROPOSAL REGARDING `IMPORTANT COURSE'

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Teen~agers behind the wheel of a car are a safety threat to themselves and others if teens are not properly trained, say area driver education teachers.

But less than half of Missouri's public schools teach students to drive. Only 184 of 450 high schools in the state offer driver education. Just 46 schools offer a summer class.

That would change under a bill that Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, introduced in the Missouri Senate. His bill would make driver education mandatory in Missouri's schools and require anyone under 18 to take a driver education class to get a license.

"When you teach driver education, you are teaching kids something they will use all of their lives," said Lyle Rice, executive vice president of the Missouri Driver and Safety Education Association, who helped draft the proposed bill.

"We teach them English and we teach them mathematics. And then we put them in a car a lethal weapon without teaching them how to drive."

For students attending schools that do not offer driver education, choices for such a course are limited.

Cape Central and Chaffee high schools offer driver education in summer session. These courses are open to students and the public. The Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School also offers driver training that is available to anyone.

Jack Russell and Bob Hathaway teach the vocational school's driver education course. The program is offered after school and on Saturday. It is taught on a one-on-one basis.

"Last year, we had 50 people who took the course," Russell said.

He said many students who attend high schools that do not offer driver education take this class.

Driver education teachers say students gain valuable information, experience and confidence from the class. They also support Sen. Caskey's proposal.

"We feel driver education is so important," said Russell, who has been teaching driver education for 46 years. He also teaches at Cape Central High School.

"You can make a mistake in English and erase it. But you can't always erase a mistake made while driving.

"I think the knowledge they learn in driver education helps save lives," Russell said. "It also tends to help the students mature and helps their attitude toward driving."

"I would like to see (driver education) mandatory for every high school student in the nation," said Dick Wadlington, who also teaches driver education at Cape Central High.

"We can give students controlled driving situations of about every kind with supervision. And we provide a lot of classroom information."

Without driver education, Wadlington said, "Students may have to learn the hard way by having an accident.

Driver education is not mandatory for Central students but Wadlington estimated 90 to 95 percent of students take the course.

"It's available to 100 percent of the students," he said.

Terry Kitchen, CHS driver education teacher, said 123 students at Central High are taking driver education this semester. "We teach about 250 students a year," he said.

The Cape Girardeau program has 14 new driving simulators that allow students to experience different road conditions and driving situations from the safety of a classroom.

"We try to get anywhere from 12 to 15 hours of time on the simulator," Kitchen said. Students also have at least six hours experience behind the wheel.

"If students happen to make a mistake," Kitchen said, "we have a brake in the car. We can stop them. Mom or dad won't be able to do that."

Different speakers also talk with students during the course, Kitchen explained. "We bring in insurance agents and state patrolmen to answer their questions.

"This is one of the most important classes a kid may ever have in school," Kitchen said. "We're teaching skills which may save their lives.".

Driver education programs are expensive when the price of gasoline, insurance and equipment is calculated.

Because of the high cost, Chaffee High School offers driver education in the summer only.

The class is taught by Terry Glenzy, who supports the legislative proposal, as long as additional funding accompanies any requirement for schools to offer driver education.

Sen. Caskey said he hoped to add a surcharge such as 10 percent to court costs for traffic violations and use that money for driver education programs in schools.

Glenzy said, "We took it out of our curriculum because we couldn't charge a fee for it. And we couldn't afford the cost of fuel and insurance."

In Chaffee's summer program, students pay to attend and no high school credit is awarded. Glenzy said the district doesn't make money on the course. "But we don't lose money like we would if we offered it during the school year."

The course is open to anyone. "We try to fill it from within our district first," he said. "We haven't had to turn anybody down."

William Wilthong, driver education teacher at Scott City High School, says, "The obvious reason to take driver education is to perhaps save an accident and even save a death."

But he said driver education can yield financial benefits for the whole community.

"We might reduce the number of accidents and that would lower our insurance rates a little bit," he said. "We would all benefit from that."

If students don't learn to drive in a class, most learn from a parent or friend, Wilthong said.

"If the parent or friend is an excellent driver, they will learn excellent skills. If the friend is terrible, well, we have trouble."

Jerry Suedekum, driver education teacher at Jackson High School, said the proposed law would add motivation for students to do well in the course.

"Now, they can fail the entire course and still get their license," Suedekum said.

"The state of Illinois has a similar law and I always thought it was a good idea," he said.

In addition, the requirement of a driver education course, Caskey is proposing a provisional license for drivers ages 16 to 18 that is invalid from midnight to 5 a.m. Local reaction to this provision was mixed.

Kitchen said he agreed with the provisional license. "I see nothing wrong with the law. Kids that age need to be home with mom and dad at that time of night."

Wadlington of Cape Girardeau disagreed with the provision to ban driving by young drivers between midnight and 5 a.m. "I like to think parents have control over their children and can monitor their driving between midnight and 5 a.m.," he said. "It's just as easy to be in an accident at noon as at midnight."

Suedekum at Jackson said he agreed with the provisional license.

Wilthong at Scott City does not support the provisional portion. "If you can drive, you can drive," he said. "I think that is aiming at another problem and I think other laws can take care of that."

Glenzy at Chaffee said he supported the idea to limit driving after midnight. "What are kids that age doing out at that time of night anyway?" he asked.