HICKORY, N.C. – School districts don’t know if they will have any funds for driver education next year.
The General
Assembly ended the $26 million recurring expense last year. Gov. Pat
McCrory didn’t extend funding to driver education in his proposed budget
plan.
That means driver education funding is set to run out June 30, unless lawmakers renew the allocations.
“This is the worst possible time
for school systems to have to deal with this,” the Department of Public
Instruction’s driver education consultant Reginald Flythe said. “We
don’t know how much money is going to be available, number one, or if
there’s going to be money available.”
North Carolina law requires public schools to provide driver education, with the state funding the program since the 1950s.
But lawmakers have been cutting
back in recent years. In 2011, the legislature authorized schools to
charge students up to $45 for driver education. Subsequently, they
reduced state allocations by $5.7 million. In 2013, state funds were
reduced by an additional $1.7 million and schools were allowed to charge
another $10 to students to recoup funds.
Currently, schools are allowed to
charge up to $65 per student. Actual per-student costs for driver
education – including textbooks, instructors, equipment and more – range
from $200-$300.
Many school systems would not be
able to absorb that shortfall, Newton-Conover City Schools Associate
Superintendent Aron Gabriel said.
“It’s not a one-time thing like
when you’re repairing a building,” Gabriel said. “You’re constantly
going to be required to do this every year. That becomes a very big
source of concern because your local fund balance is all you really
have, and that’s your savings account. You only want to dip into the
savings account for emergencies, not for ongoing residual things.”
None of the school districts in Catawba County currently charge students for driver education.
If funding is not renewed,
Hickory Public Schools will propose to charge the maximum $65 per
student, according to HPS Finance Director Adam Steele. That would still
leave a $70,000 shortfall, which would need to be paid from local
funds.
At the HPS board meeting March 9, board members expressed frustration about the unfunded mandate.
“This is just something else
we’ll have to take away from students to fill in the blank they’ve (the
legislature) left us,” board member Sallie Johnson said.
North Carolina Driving School
operations director Mark Smith said he was concerned schools would have
to put their summer driving classes on hold while the legislature
debated the budget. About 1,700 students go through driver education
classes each year in Catawba County.
“You take a school system like
Catawba County or Guilford County or Forsyth County … you pull the
program for 60 days, and you’re backed up,” Smith said.
N.C. Driving School contracts
with 37 school districts across the state, including Catawba County
Schools and HPS. Several of those classes are currently scheduled for
July. A spokeswoman for CCS said the availability of those classes would
depend on funding.
“Last year, they didn’t have a
budget finalized until the second week of August,” Smith said. “If they
wait that long this time, it’s really going to put school systems behind
the eight-ball.”
Many school boards and lobbying
organizations are pushing legislators to either renew state funding for
driver education or allow schools to charge the full cost of the
program.
“Every part of the system over
the last few years has been trimmed as much as it possibly can,” NCSBA
lobbyist Leanne Winner said. “Districts really just don’t have the
resources to fund a program that had a substantial amount of it funded
at the state level.”
State Rep. Pat Hurley (R-Randolph) said she plans to introduce a bill to renew state funding for the program.
“We need to do this because our children need to know how to drive safely,” Hurley said.
According to Hurley, she is working on securing alternate funding sources but will introduce the bill “as soon as possible."
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