Beginning driver Ashley Crawford grips the worn gray steering wheel and warily begins maneuvering the 1999 Ford ****** through a set of bright orange traffic cones outside Killian Senior High School.
She considers herself lucky: Because of budget cuts, many schools around the country are leaving driver's ed by the side of the road. They are cutting back on behind-the-wheel instruction or eliminating it altogether, leaving it to parents to either teach their teenagers themselves or send them to commercial driving schools.
"If my parents would have taught me, it would have been different," said Ashley, a 16-year-old sophomore. "When I drive, they try to tell me what to do, and I get nervous."
Some educators and others worry that such cutbacks could prove tragic.
"As soon as people start taking driver's education away from the ****, we're going to pay for it with lost lives, collisions, and ultimately that costs everybody," said John Bolen, past president of the Florida Professional Driving School Association.
