GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced on a twitter post her call to have driver's education and training return to being offered at public schools across the state, working with the Michigan Education Association on the new initiative.
She referenced how 20 years ago, the state "shifted" driver's education away from public schools to private driving instructors, but are now looking to what is being described as "gaps" in access to driver's education.
"This is an equity issue, period," said Chandra Madafferi, president of the Michigan Education Association. She explained that her experience as a high school teacher showed her how many students have families who struggle to afford driver's ed.
"A lot of kids weren't able to actually take driver's ed and get their license when they turned 16. In fact, many of them had to wait till they were older, because they could not afford a driver's education."
Madafferi says they are currently in an "investigative and discovery" phase, and are looking at the few school districts who have kept driving instruction in their schools.
She emphasizes that the MEA is not looking for the initiative to compete or take away business from private driving schools.
"In no way are we looking to take away work or eliminate driver's education companies. We believe that there are many places across the state that there's just not enough of them, and so we're looking to try to fill holes not to get into competition," said Madafferi. "We know that there are a number of students, especially in lower income families, we know that a lot of students who are black and brown do not have access, and people are not getting their driver's license until they're 18, so we are looking to supplement and kind of fill holes."
13 ON YOUR SIDE reached out to some area driving schools, and some felt that private driving schools could be diminished if public schools across the state go back to providing driver's ed, but also expressed that there is a need to make driver's ed more accessible.
"They want to get driver's ed back to more underserviced communities. That's a great, I don't think anybody would disagree with that," said Frank Menzel, CEO of Official Driving School.
Menzel that the state can do more with grants and making funds available for students to attend driver's ed, along with saying that private driving schools could also be contracted by school districts. He also expressed some caution regarding factors that he believes needs to be addressed for schools to restart offering driver's ed.
"It's a four or five month process to get a driver education certificate, and there's very strict regulations that go with that," said Menzel. "There's only so many people in the state, probably less than 20 in the entire state of Michigan, that are actually certified currently that can teach those instructor classes," referring to the struggle of finding new driving instructors to teach students, a point mentioned by other local driving schools as well.
Madafferi says that they have seen opportunities for growth so far in their studies.
"We have found out in the last couple of days, even that many of our educators who are teachers in classrooms are working for private [driving school] companies, or have started the companies themselves, and so we know that we do have a lot of people out there, and so I do think it's going to be a couple year process. We need to be able to provide resources to our schools, so we can provide the need."
Secretary of State Benson says her office and the MEA are continuing to work on providing grants to help families afford driver's ed but says public schools should once again be able to provide that need.
Madafferi expresses excitement with the idea of bringing back driver's ed to schools, as she discussed the sentiment from students who have experienced being taught to drive by school staff.
"They said things like, 'my teachers are from my community, and they know me, they know the dangerous places, it was so cool to sit with my track coach, I was at ease,' and that relationship is very important."
She says it will be optional for school districts to take part, but says more than 10 have already expressed a desire to be a part of the pilot program.