Here's My Proposal

I think that the Driver's Education Class is one that we need here are Chinquapin. Our students don't have the time to take a Driver's Education class outside of school, and if we offered one here, we could save a lot of time for the students while making them valuable assets to their families and their community. As I have stressed as part of my project platform, I firmly believe that Driver's Education and a license are necessary to be considered an adult.

The class's scheduling is the easiest part to figure out. Texas laws state that a potential driver under the age of 18 must take some 38 hours of Driver's Education. However, the same driver at or over the age of 18 only has to take 6 hours. This is a huge deterrent to students who would like to take the class. It would decrease enrollment to nearly only seniors. The small number of students means that it wouldn't be that much of an impact to place the class during P.E. Since the would only be 6 hours, the seniors would be able to finish all the the required class hours within 3 weeks, assuming that the class is taken during 2 of the 4 P.E. hours during the week. A faculty member who doesn't teach a P.E. class could teach the Driver's Education class.

To become an instructor for a Driver's Education class, one must have a relatively clean license. A prospective instructor must not have any convictions (leastways, not any recent ones) and must have no history of fraud or moral turpitude. There must not be any history of drunken driving or license suspension. Other than that, anyone with a diploma and a license qualifies to teach. To become a teacher, one must have a certificate showing that he or she has taken at least 9 semester hours of a driver and traffic safety education course at an accredited college or university.

The only insurance cost is that of the vehicles. Since the vans are registered to the school, they are insured by the school and can be used for the class. The class could be held in any number of parking lots around the area. Many of them aren't used extensively, and so can be driven around in. However, practicing driving can be done on the weekends with the students' parents. The only thing needed for the school to hand out is the permit to practice on the open road.

This class could be put into practice within the next two years, if someone picks up this packet soon. The only thing left to do is find out how to pay the costs of the classes needed for the instructor, and the cost for the class, which is required to pay the teacher for the extra time spent.

Well, that's it. What do you think of my proposal?

Open-Source Proposal

I had a genius idea. This post will be a comment post. I will need everyone's help here, so spread the word. I would like for people to comment with any questions they have about my class. This post will be the backbone of my proposal. Think of you guys as Mozilla, and my proposal will be Firefox. I will not reply to your comments, but I will post my proposal when it is ready. You can see your influences then.

The Next Step

So, I asked Susan, who's in charge of the curriculum, how to add something to the curriculum. In order to get my class taught here, it would have to be added to the curriculum and scheduled in. Basically, it has to chewed up and spit out by the system. I have to write an outline of the class, telling everything about it, and answer almost every question that someone might have about it. Susan would then take my outline, which would also be my proposal, to the board and they would debate it. I think if I can make my project coherent, I have a pretty good chance. Let's get started!

While You Were Away...

So over the break, Rep. Walle's office contacted me back, as did the other people I had asked to be on my panel. Everyone said yes, so the green light has been lit, but Rep. Walle also sent me some information that my sources didn't have. It's great to be in contact with someone in the system. Here is the law that I was emailed.

Sec. 1001.353. DRIVER TRAINING COURSE AT PUBLIC OR PRIVATE SCHOOL.

A driver training school may conduct a driver training course at a public or private school for students of the public or private school as provided by an agreement with the public or private school. The course is subject to any law applicable to a course conducted at the main business location of the driver training school.

Added by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1276, Sec. 6.012(a), eff. Sept. 1, 2003.

§176.1003. Driver Education School Licensure.

(k) Contract site. A school shall receive approval from TEA prior to conducting a class at a contract site, and approval may be granted by TEA upon review of the agreement made between the licensed driver education school and the contract site. The course shall be subject to the same rules that apply at the licensed driver education school, including periodic inspections by TEA representatives. An on-site inspection is not required prior to approval of the course.

The office was also gracious enough to send me some links to the Texas Driver Statute and to the Rules about teaching Driver's Ed. This thing could really work, and I also apologize for misleading y'all with my earlier posts, but if it helps, I was just as misled. Till next time, y'all!