Ohio requires drivers age 15½ to 17 to take 24 hours of instruction in the classroom, eight hours behind the wheel and practice 50 hours with an adult.
The proposed change would allow young drivers to take the classroom portion online through courses approved by the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
Sen. Tom Patton, R-Strongsville, said the change provides an option for students and families who can’t fit traditional classes into their schedules.
Online companies also charge considerably less than brick-and-mortar schools — as low as $19 for one program.
“If we’re allowing people to get Ph.D.’s online... this is drivers training — we should be able to do this,” Patton said. “Young people have become accustomed to learning online.”
Patton, who led the push to ban electronic devices for teen drivers, said he wouldn’t have hesitated if one of his six adult children wanted to take drivers ed online.
The proposed change is one of several amendments to the governor’s main budget corrections bill, which is expected to reach the Senate floor Wednesday.
Driver education school leaders oppose the change, saying teens could complete the online course with little oversight. They also fear a loss of business that they said could force them to raise prices and close classroom locations.
Cindi Smith, owner of the Urbana Driving School, is “totally against” the proposed change, and not from a business standpoint.
She says it’s a safety issue.
Since it opened in 2004, the school has instructed more than 7,000 students.
At one point during Smith’s course, a man came to class and talked about losing his wife to a driver who was texting.
In another lesson, designed to show the importance of walking around a vehicle before getting in, a stool is set up behind a car to represent a small child, and the student, sitting behind the wheel, is asked if it’s safe to back out.
On-the-road training is more expensive to provide than classroom instruction, they said.
Driving schools don’t oppose online classes, but would prefer a “blended” setup where students take most of the classroom portion online and meet in a class for tests and to discuss more serious topics such as drunken driving, said Dan Cox, president of the Driving School Association of Ohio.
“By us having the other half of this, we can test them in class,” Cox said. “They cannot ever cheat on it because we’re testing them physically in class. We can enter the 21st century, but we need to do it right.”
Of the 26 states that require teen drivers education, 15 have approved online courses or online course providers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association.
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