Driver’s ed classes eyed for Lynn schools

LYNN – Many people consider a driver’s license a teenage rite of passage that ranks up there with a first date or first job.But being a licensed-to-drive teen in the state of Massachusetts has become increasingly complicated and expensive over the past several years. And while this might prepare teens for adult life in the Commonwealth – where just about everything short of blinking requires a registration form, training and fees – it also prices a lot of teens right off the roads.School Committee member Richard Starbard has an idea that might help teens and their parents who often are the ones writing the checks to driving schools.At this week’s School Committee meeting, Starbard proposed bringing driver’s education into Lynn’s three high schools as an after-school program.”Kids would go right from last period to a driver’s ed class,” said Starbard, who started mulling over the idea after sponsoring a former student for a driver’s license road test.Starbard said it was clear the student had the driving skills, but not the facts and knowledge kids pick in a driver’s education class.To get a Massachusetts driver’s license, teens between the ages of 161/2 and 18 must complete a driver’s education program that provides 30 hours of classroom training, 12 hours of practice behind the wheel and six hours in the back seat observing other student drivers during their on-road practice hours. As part of the program, parents must attend a two-hour class, for which there may be an additional fee.Student who are over 18 are not required to take driver’s education to get a license. However, taking a course does reduce insurance premiums that are steep for new drivers, particularly males.Many school districts and private schools offer after-school driver’s ed programs and some even grant a small amount of academic credit for completing the course. Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said she didn’t think that had been the practice in Lynn.”There’s never been any driver’s education, or at least there wasn’t when I graduated from Classical in 1980,” she said. “So it’s been at least 30 years.”In addition to making it easier for students to get to classes, Starbard said the School Department may be able to reduce the price of driver’s education. The average cost of a course and the mandatory road hours is $675. Starbard said he’s sure he can shave at least $100 off that. And the course may be even cheaper if it’s offered through the schools since driving instructors would have to go through a bidding process.John Mihos, the lawyer for the School Committee, said he would do some research to make sure there was nothing that would legally stand in the way of the school offering driver’s education. The School Committee voted unanimously to ask the Curriculum Subcommittee to review the proposal.