Scooby Doo can get behind the wheel again in Florida.

Not in real life, of course. The talking dog doesn't exist. But opponents of a bill to let Georgia's habitual traffic violators take court-ordered driving classes online signed the cartoon canine up for an Internet course in Florida, which has a similar law.

Ruh-roh. Not only did he pass, Doo got a certificate.

The stunt was pulled by Driving Educators of Georgia, a statewide association of driving schools trying to persuade Gov. Sonny Perdue to veto the legislation known as House Bill 1027. The group argues such a system would make it easier for reckless drivers to get their licenses back. It also would be prone to fraud, the group says.

"There's a punitive component to court-ordered or administrative sanctioned online defensive driving courses," said Chuck McMullen, a DEOG lobbyist. "Sitting down on a Friday night and taking a test with a glass of wine while you're watching "CSI" —- and maybe paying somebody 20 bucks to do it for you —- isn't the same as attending a Saturday defensive driving class."

A key supporter of the bill said otherwise.

"Distance learning is not the future. Distance learning is today," said J. Barry Schrenk, president of Taggart's Driving School. "There are many counties and many areas of Georgia that aren't served by any driver education program at all."

The state allows Georgians to take online courses to obtain driver's licenses, but does not allow traffic violators to take online courses to reduce points or reclaim their suspended licenses.

DEOG, which represents more than 200 classroom driving programs across the state, doesn't object to online training for new Georgia drivers. But permitting traffic violators to take court-ordered driving courses online would run driving schools out of business, McMullen said. That's because these schools make most of their profits from non-DUI traffic offenders, the same violators covered under House Bill 1027.

In an April 15 letter to Perdue, DEOG president Renee Bell complained that just before the bill was approved, it was stripped of amendments that made it less objectionable. Among them was a requirement that Internet driving education programs be protected by online security verification to ensure that traffic offenders, not surrogates or cartoon characters, are the ones taking the test. Another amendment exempted the most serious traffic offenders from taking online courses, McMullen said.

That includes motorists cited for aggressive driving, reckless driving, unlawful passing of a school bus and driving with an open container of alcohol in the car.

Schrenk disputes that. He said judges already order some offenders to take online driver education programs, and House Bill 1027 would actually make those online programs more secure.

House Bill 1027 cleared the General Assembly at 11:31 p.m. April 4, just 14 minutes before the Legislature adjourned the 2008 session. That's when the Georgia House approved the conference committee version of the bill.

Sen. Joseph Carter (R-Tifton), who'd fought for the amendments DEOG wanted, was a member of that conference committee and signed off on the bill.

Carter said he supported the final version of the bill because it excluded vehicular homicide from a list of traffic offenses covered by the original online driver's education bill.

Carter said he did so with some reluctance.

"I'm still very troubled by this legislation," Carter said. "We're talking about some serious traffic offenses here. We need to require some of these folks to sit in a classroom."

Asked how he could have supported the bill if he's still troubled by it, Carter replied, "Frankly I've got other issues. I can't be the sole champion on this. I do what I can do."