Driver ed money is diverted - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Driver ed money is diverted

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By Jennifer Emert - bio | email

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Georgia's budget woes are leading the state to use money that should go to driver's ed for other Georgia programs.  

Money collected from a fee tacked onto traffic tickets is supposed to go toward grants for driver's ed classes in Georgia high schools, but less than a quarter of the revenue is making it there.

That means more parents are forced to pay for online driver's ed instruction or a class at a college because students need the class to get a license. Safe Communities coordinators say the classes make a difference. 

"Since mandated traffic education in 2006 we have seen teen crash and fatality numbers drop statewide so drivers education is working we've just got to get more driver's ed. into the public high schools," said Michelle DeMott of Albany Safe Communities.

Just 150 of Georgia's 400 high schools offer driver's education classes. Dougherty County Schools and many others in southwest Georgia do not offer driver's ed.

 

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