Online driver’s education

Of all the things teenage students can learn online, they cannot take driver’s training.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-Jordan) would change part of that.

HF615 would allow the 30-hour classroom portion of driver’s education to be Internet-based, provided the program has been approved by the Department of Public Safety. Behind-the-wheel instruction would still be done in the traditional way.

“This really is about allowing one other option on the menu for how kids can get their driver’s training,” Rep. Steve Simon (DFL-St. Louis Park) told the House Transportation Policy and Finance Committee April 11. Simon sponsored a similar bill in previous years.

Approved two days later by the committee, the bill awaits action by the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee. A companion, SF499, sponsored by Sen. John Sterling Howe (R-Red Wing), was held over April 12 by the Senate Transportation Committee for possible omnibus bill inclusion.

DriversEd.com founder and COO Gary Tsifrin said the course proffered by his company benefits students who live a long distance from a training program, families that struggle transporting a learner to and from a driving program and students who want to take a full class load during the school day and take driver’s education at a more convenient time.

“Students learn in all kinds of different ways. The thing that is probably the greatest disservice we can do to a child is to try and fit 30 different shaped pegs through the same square hole,” Buesgens said.

Among concerns addressed by opponents were that online training does not provide for different scenarios, such as weather conditions, and that a classroom offers more opportunity for discussion, practical demonstrations, guest speakers, local tailoring, interaction with other students and accountability for every student. “Our major concern is that the safety of teens is being compromised for convenience,” said Cindy Thienes, secretary/treasurer of the Minnesota Driving School Association. “Generally, teens are easily distracted and they tend to look for the easiest way out. … Sometimes safety requires inconvenience.”

“The real backstop here is the test,” Simon said. “No kid in Minnesota is going to get his or her driver’s permit unless they pass that multiple-choice test.”

A 2009 study by the Department of Public Safety concluded there is “no evidence that students taking an online course fared any worse or better on exit exams,” Tsifrin said.