The state has collected more than $33 million in fees tacked onto traffic tickets but has spent barely a quarter of the money on its intended purpose: providing driver’s education in Georgia high schools.
The father of the dead boy in whose name the money is raised wants to know why.
Joshua’s Law passed the General Assembly in 2005 and required county clerks to add 5 percent to every traffic ticket paid. The money is then sent to the state’s general fund.
As with other such targeted fees, the law that created it anticipates — but does not require — that it will be used for a certain purpose, in this case as grants to schools to provide driver’s education.
But that hasn’t happened very often. Slightly more than $9 million has been sent to more than 100 schools or school systems to fund new driver’s education programs.
“They’re raising money in my son’s name to save lives and only 26 percent of that money is going to save lives,” said Alan Brown of Cartersville, whose son, Joshua, died in a 2003 single-car accident.
Brown is convinced his son might not have died if he had more and better training before getting his driver’s license.
He created a foundation in his son’s name and led the effort in the Legislature to increase training requirements for young drivers.
Now, thanks to Joshua’s Law, any 16-year-old who wants a driver’s license must complete a certain amount of classroom and hands-on training. To help make the training more accessible, the law authorized the 5 percent fee on tickets to fund programs in public schools.
Early statistics indicate the program appears to work. Driver’s training is up 800 percent in the state, Brown said, and the Department of Transportation said teen fatalities in the state are down 50 percent from 2003 to 2008.
But Brown wonders how much more could be done if the money were going where it is supposed to go. Of the more than 400 public high schools in the state, driver’s ed is offered in only about 150.
“My goodness, how many lives could we save if we had all the money?” Brown said.
“I’m honored that crashes are down by that money. I’m honored teen fatalities are down in my son’s name. But it just gets under my skin that people are still dying and we’re still accepting that.”
State officials say they’re not accepting it, but the state’s financial situation has required awful choices.
“We do talk about this, because our intention was to have more money for driver’s ed,” said Rep. Ben Harbin (R-Evans), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which writes the state budget. “And when the economy improves you will see more. But right now, quite frankly, every available dollar has to go to education and health care and law enforcement and other things we have to focus on.”
Because the money from the Joshua’s Law fees goes directly to the general fund, legislators are not obligated by law to spend it on driver’s training.
Harbin said he sympathizes with Brown and understands his concern.
“It is a valuable program and we have improved it over the years,” Harbin said. “But, I hope in the future as the economy improves it’ll get even better.”
Bob Dallas, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, said lawmakers, the governor’s office, the schools and his office are “aligned with wanting this program to expand. We want to award grants. The issues with the state’s finances — we are like any other department having to make very difficult decisions.”
Dallas’ office manages the grant program. It provided grants in late 2007 and late 2008, but is in a holding pattern for now.
It accepted new grant applications from schools and school systems this summer, he said, and if money becomes available again, those grants will be awarded.
There are other options for students if their school does not offer driver’s ed.
If they can afford it, teens can take the required course at a private driving school, which can cost up to $800.
The state also has recently begun offering the classroom instruction over the Internet, and parents can use a special state instructional manual to observe their children driving to meet the hands-on training requirement of the law.
According to 2008 figures, of the 55,000 students who took driver’s ed that year, more than 31,000 took a traditional program. Another 19,000 took the class online.
In Cobb County, a partnership of the Marietta and Cobb County school systems offers a fee-based driver’s education program after school.
Marietta had received more than $100,000 in Joshua’s Law grants, but it wasn’t enough to fund the entire program. Instead, the grants went to scholarships for lower-income students.
Cindi Parris, director of the Marietta/Cobb Driver’s Education program, said about 2,000 students went through the program last year. That’s fewer than 5 percent of the 16-year-olds in the county, she said. The program costs $350 for 30 hours of classroom instruction and six hours of behind-the-wheel training. More money from Joshua’s Law would make it more accessible, she said.
“We try to keep it as low cost as we can,” she said. “There’s no profit. It’s still hard to get to everybody. Not everybody can afford it.”
How we got this story
A recent story in USA Today lauded Georgia’s drivers education program but failed to reference the lack of funding from the state. That angered Alan Brown, the father of Joshua Brown, a 16-year-old who died in 2003 when his pickup hydroplaned and hit a tree. Brown, who says his son never took driver’s training and didn’t know what to do when he lost control of his truck, contacted a reporter at the AJC, who researched state budget records and teen driving statistics, and spoke with administrators at several schools across the region.
