Rep. Amedee's HB 857 seeks to "establish parent-taught driver education." The bill requires that parents seek approval from the government to teach their children to drive a vehicle in Louisiana.
Parents will be required to (among other things):
--pay "applicable fees" which are not detailed in the bill;
--request in writing a packet from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections;
--have an email account;
--sign an affidavit;
--meet certain criteria which will include having their driving record pulled and insurance payment history analyzed - evidently, being a licensed driver will not be sufficient and having come upon hard times in the past could prevent you from being "accepted" by the department.
This is an outrageous overreach of government and a dangerous, slippery slope. The fact that driver's ed is required at all is a scam. If you pass the test, regardless of how you acquire the knowledge, you should be given your driver's license - period. This is just another legislative handoff to special interests, as well as, another data collection goldmine.
If parents have to be approved in order to teach their children driver's education, where will this lead us? Will the state have to approve parents to teach shoe tying, cooking, car maintenance, finance, manners??? Will the state finally realize its goal of requiring parents to be government approved in order to homeschool their children?
We don't need to "establish parent-taught driver education" in order to teach our children to drive. All that we need is for Rep. Amedee to amend HB 857 to repeal the laws that require driver's ed classes and that tie children's school attendance and conduct to getting a license. Do you remember when those decisions belonged to parents? We do!
This bill really speaks to the fact that many of our elected officials use the legislative process to force citizens to use and pay for (either out of pocket, via taxes, or both) the services of special interest groups. In this case, The Driving School Association of Louisiana is the special interest group that is behind the laws that force citizens to take driver's education classes. It isn't hard to imagine the next likely step: parents will be required to pay for and attend certification classes with someone from The Driving School Association of Louisiana prior to receiving the Dept. of Public Safety and Corrections' approval in order to teach their children to drive.
Requiring instruction from these so-called professional driving instructors is being sold as a safer alternative to family-, friend-, or self-taught driving unless government oversight is provided.
How much safer does it look to you?
Driving instructor accused of having 'sexually explicit' convers - WAFB ...
45-year-old driving instructor accused of stalking 15-year-old s - KPLC ...
Driving instructor arrested for indecent behavior with juveniles - KATC ...
Crowley Driving Instructor Allegedly Has Sex With Student - KPEL 96.5
Driver's ed teacher arrested for drunk driving - New York Post
Driving instructor accused of inappropriately touching teen during ...
How dare our elected officials propose to create a government program that scrutinizes parents and forces them to seek government approval to teach their children anything!
HB 857 will be heard at 9:30 A.M. today, Monday, April 30th in the Transportation, Highways, and Public Works Committee. Please, call and email the committee members with the email block below. Tell them to vote no to the bill as written; or, to amend it to repeal the laws that require driver's ed classes and that tie children's school attendance and conduct to getting a license.
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Please, call and email Rep. Amedee ([email protected]). Ask her to amend HB 857 to repeal the laws that require driver's ed classes and that tie children's school attendance and conduct to getting a license, or to just withdraw it.