LISD driver's education plan rerouted
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

Louise students are in their second lap as the district tries to make driver's education an option through the school.

The Louise Independent School District board heard an update by Superintendent Andy Peters on the program Feb. 18.

The issue was first raised when some Louise parents approached the board in January 2007, asking the course be returned to the curriculum at Louise High School. Parents said it was hard to come up with 32 hours of classroom instruction, and that sending children to a summer course in El Campo conflicted with harvest.

In March of last year, the district decided to pay for one of its teachers to be trained and certified to teach the classroom part of the course, and have that teacher work through Mid- Coast Driving School in Bay City. Students pay the company for the class. The system meant the district wouldn't have to come up with a vehicle, insurance and other associated costs.

But Peters told the board last Monday the Louise coach who was teaching the program is ill and couldn't continue offering the course.

Peters said a parent contacted a man in Edna named Kenneth Koop, who is retired, but had owned a large driving school company in San Antonio.

He has agreed to teach the course in Louise this summer if he can get a minimum of 10 students, who each would pay $165 for the classroom course and receive credit for an elective. In the summer, the course would take place from 8-10 a.m., and from 3:30-5:30 p.m. in the fall and spring.

Schools gradually stopped offering the driver's training after 1997, when a 1995 state law letting parents teach their children to drive was implemented by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Around the same time, federal highway funds that reimbursed schools for some of the course's costs dried up.

In Texas, all new drivers under 18 must complete an approved driver education course before they can be licensed.

Prior to 1997, the training requirement could only be met if it was provided through instructors and schools certified by the Texas Education Agency.

Parents now must follow state-approved procedures and curricula and use one of the state-approved courses that require at least 32 hours of classroom instruction and 14 hours of in-car instruction.

On The Net:

To learn more about driver's education in Texas,

visit www.dmv.org