Schools deciding how to cover driver's ed costs

Getting a driver’s license is something most teenagers long for. With it comes freedom.

It now may be a little harder to attain.

The state legislature cut some of its funding toward driver’s education in its just-approved budget, but allows school systems to now charge up to $45 per child to take driver’s education.

The three school systems in Catawba County are still deciding what to do this fall. Catawba County Schools knows it won’t be able to offer the service for free.

“The board wanted all the information to operate the program as is,” said Glenn Barger, superintendent of Catawba County Schools. “But there’s no way to do that without charging the students.”

The school system currently has employees on its payroll who teach driver’s education to its students. Catawba County Schools is looking into contracting a company to teach its teens to drive instead.

The school system has requested a pre-bid of a few companies, to get an idea of what it might cost if Catawba County Schools was to contract with them, Barger said.

“We described the number of students and how we want them taught,” he said. “The board would look at the information at its July meeting. We wanted to see the interest out there.”

Catawba County Schools currently owns 20 cars that are used for driver’s education classes, said Crystal Davis, attorney for the school system. She said the request for the proposals includes that the contractors would provide vehicles for the students to use.

“If we go with a contractor, we would sell the cars and the money would revert back to the driver’s education program,” Davis said.

Of the 1,569 students who were eligible for driver’s education during the 2010-11 school year, 1,168 students enrolled in and completed driver’s ed, she said. Students must be at least 14-and-a-half years old to enroll in the program. For the 2011-12 school year, Catawba County Schools has 1,546 students who are eligible to enroll.

“We’re basing (our decision) on our projected students for ninth grade,” Barger said. “We may still do it in-house like we do now.”

School systems will still get some money from the state for driver’s education, but it will be less than it has been in years past. According to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction website, the driver’s education allotment was reduced from $236.31 per ninth grade student to $198.66 per ninth grade student, a difference of $37.65. This includes private, charter and federal schools.

“This is not quite a $45 decrease, however, the prior years’ per pupil allotment for drivers training barely covered materials, fuel, vehicles, insurance and salaries in many school systems especially school systems that employed their own drivers education instructors,” said Kathy Isenhour, associate superintendent for Hickory Public Schools.

Catawba County Schools will have to charge the $45 allowed by the state to come close to paying for the program, Barger said. He hopes if a company bids on the service, a fee charged to the students won’t be quite so high.

Barger said there are several districts that already contract driver’s education to another business or are looking to do so. Burke County Public Schools runs its own driver’s ed program but is looking at contracting it through another agency.

Hickory Public Schools has done so for several years, Isenhour said. The school system contracts with North Carolina Driving School Inc., the same company that contracts with Caldwell County Schools, according to its website. The program is housed at Hickory High, which is where students also meet for classes, she said.

Hickory Public Schools has not decided if it will need to make changes to its driver’s ed program due to the state budget cuts, she said.

“We may start it later for the kids,” Isenhour said. “We’re gathering data and are looking to see if we have to implement a charge or not. We’ll be looking at that Monday night (at the board meeting).”

During the 2010-11 school year, 223 students, primarily ninth-graders, enrolled in the program.

“Some elect not to take it until they’re 16 or 17, but the majority does it by the time they’re 15 so they can get their learner’s permit,” Isenhour said.

Like Hickory Public Schools, Newton-Conover City Schools has also not decided if it will charge its students an additional fee for driver’s education this fall, said Superintendent Barry Redmond.

Driver’s ed is comprised of classroom instruction, which must consist of at least six hours on driving while impaired and one hour of motorcycle safety awareness, and at least six hours of driving experience.

Redmond said Newton-Conover has tried to cut some of the expense of the classroom by offering some of it online.

“A county created its own software program, so we now offer the classroom program online,” he said. “We still offer it in a classroom if students want it that way, but it can be on the computer, too.”

Redmond said the school system is looking to off-set the additional gap in funding from the state.