Is there a way we could help these students? I have a little extra money I could send your way if it would actually help kids who really need it.
Doesn’t the state mandate it (or not)? California does.
They mandate it, but they don’t pay for it. You get it privately.
Thanks, WhyNot and mlees. It boggles the mind to think that public safety programs like drivers ed are getting cut. I bet they still have a football team.
In Texas, the state mandates driver’s ed only if you get a driver’s license. You take a driver’s ed class as a prerequisite to get your learner’s permit, then you have to take so many hours of behind-the-wheel and simulator training. Once you’ve completed that, you can take the road test for your full license.
When I went through this, my parents had to pay for the behind-the-wheel and simulator time. I’m reasonably sure the classroom training was free, it was just after school. It certainly wasn’t a requirement for graduation.
All of this assumes the student driver is 15 or 16 and planning to get their license at 16. I have no idea what the requirements are for adults.
Robin
:In Texas - no drivers ed is needed if you wait till 18 for your license.
Schools in my area didn’t run classes, so most paid for separate driving school - I did it homeschool.
In California, most local school districts get most of their funding from the state. Even federal funding goes to the state first, and then is distributed by the state to the local districts. So if a local school district has drivers’ ed, the state is probably paying for it.
sorry for the delay in my reply, I havent had a good nights sleep in days and have still been very busy. on the good news front I already have a job offer as does every instructor from the school and one one of the office girls as well, the only one totally out right now is our 16 year old wonder girl who just bought her first car. (its paid for but now shes jobless and her last check is worthless as well)
several local schools have stepped up to help out but the kids will still have to pay more money to finish up. the way it works is they can take classes for free with one of the other schools. they will have to pay the cost of a drive lesson to finish their drives though and since many need 6 drives that is going to be very very expensive. (I would guess $25 will be close to cost on a drive lesson and most of these kids had trouble getting the $450 to take the course the first time. )
I would love to find a way to set up a donation program to get the kids finished that cant afford it but I have no idea where to start with that, however I am meeting this afternoon with one of the guys from another school and I will ask if they might be willing to match donations in the form of employee wages or free drives to help out, maybe he can come up with something.
there is the possibility that he was kidnapped by the pirates of the Caribbean and is being held hostage but we really have no idea and the guy is a mixed bag of community service and general asshatery so its hard to say one way or the other without hearing from him on the subject.
as for bonding, no Washington does not require it for driving schools. After this we may finally see a move to get the law on the books, we had another scandal just a couple years ago with Diamond driving schools as well. That was actually my first question to the DOL when I talked with them initially.
the support here rules, seriously thank you guys. and If you have any thoughts on some kind of donation line for these kids shoo me an email, I have a Gmail account under the name Claythargic and I would love to get something set up, the local news channels would also eat that up I am sure.
I like the idea of sponsoring a certain number of “drive lessons” if we could figure out the details.
I think that would be a great story - the newspeople like to talk about the dangers of the internet, but I think presenting the other side, that people from far away places will donate to people in need over the internet, would make an interesting angle.
I’m good for sponsoring at least one driving lesson. Let’s figure out how to do this!
ETA: I’m glad you got an offer from another company, Critical1!
I talked to some people who think that the bank we did our banking at would be able to set up a donation line, I will be calling them monday morning to see if I can get that going.
the other driving schools are willing to operate for cost so my thinking is to use the donations to help lower the schools costs so the kids pay less.
its a guess but there is probably 20-30K$ in costs so if it was 30k and we raise 10k the kids will basically get a 30% savings (the schools getting paid from the fund we set up on a drive by drive basis)
I really hope this comes off, I will definitely be telling people that it started with the dope (the Straightdope that is)
Pretty much what Quartz said. Even if he got away with 20K-40K from the current cohort of students that’s peanuts compared to what a busy (and yours looks busy) driving school can generate. Unless he’s on the run from larger debts or other stuff it doesn’t make much sense from a “take the money and run perspective” for the relatively small amounts involved. Did he give you any notion of where he was staying?
BTW tourist kidnappings are not unheard of in Costa Rica over the past several years. If he has been taken and is being held it is entirely plausible they are emptying his account.
well it looks like the donation line is a go, just have to finalize a couple things with the bank…now the question is where should I post it? this thread or start a new one, this isnt exactly pit material any longer
Nova, formally the largest English conversation school in Japan suddenly had to close its doors last year, leaving 450,000 students out millions of dollars in prepaid tuition, as well as screwing over thousands of teachers of unpaid salaries.
Really sucks when shit like that happens. That’s really cool you’re doing something about it.
I’d start a new thread - email a mod for permission* and location suggestions.
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