Insurance companies should fund universal driver’s ed

At 17, Aaliyah Hunt is working a decent schedule: attending Pathways Excessive by day, generally shepherding her sister to highschool first, after which working five-hour shifts within the evenings to assist her household pay payments and save for school – and to pay for her personal bus tickets. 

She does all of it with no automobile, counting on buses when her mother cannot give her rides. 

“I’ve an autistic sister and generally her (faculty) bus doesn’t come, so I’ve to take her to highschool on town bus,” Hunt mentioned. “That may make me as much as two hours late for varsity.” 

A driver’s license could be “life altering,” she mentioned, estimating she would save 5-6 hours per week. However the price of driver’s schooling is out of attain. 

On Tuesday, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson joined neighborhood group Frequent Floor in calling for common inexpensive driver schooling for all Milwaukee college students. They need automobile insurance coverage corporations to fund it. 

The group is asking for $1.7 million on an annual foundation, divided evenly between three corporations, State Farm, American Household and Progressive. 

That might permit the Milwaukee Recreation Division to supply free driver’s schooling to about 5,000 Milwaukee Public Colleges college students and 1,000 college students from different Milwaukee colleges annually, leaving college students on the hook to pay solely the $34 allow price to get their driving permits. 

Johnson signed on to the group’s letter Tuesday at Metropolis Corridor, flanked by Hunt and dozens of members of Frequent Floor asking the businesses for a gathering to debate the proposal. The non-profit group tries to search out artistic options to neighborhood issues. 

He mentioned it was a vital step towards decreasing reckless driving. 

“We have critical points on the roadways right here within the metropolis,” he mentioned, “and drivers schooling is likely one of the many steps we are able to take.”

Extra:‘I would like mother and father to step up’: Milwaukee metropolis leaders urge residents to do extra to scale back violence, reckless driving

American Household advised the Journal Sentinel it was desirous about studying extra concerning the concept. The opposite corporations did not instantly reply to a request for remark. 

“In the end, we wish the identical outcome, which is saving lives,” Jim Buchheim, neighborhood and social impression officer for American Household, mentioned in a press release. “We welcome the chance to debate this system and different doable options.”

Milwaukee Recreation already presents free driver’s schooling to about 2,000 MPS college students annually by means of MPS Drive, in line with the division’s director, Lynn Greb, because of funding from the college district. It additionally serves about 300 different younger folks annually by means of its neighborhood program, which prices individuals about $150. 

The demand far exceeds this system’s present capability, Greb mentioned. For instance, 150 college students are on a waitlist for this summer season’s session of MPS Drive, which is capped at 850 college students, plus about 50 on the waitlist for the neighborhood program. 

In a survey on the finish of 2021 of age-eligible MPS college students, just one.4% mentioned they weren’t desirous about taking driver’s schooling, in line with Milwaukee Recreation.  

Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Comply with her on Twitter at @RoryLinnane.