Driving school class enrollment still high

A new law allowing parents to teach driver’s education to their children doesn’t look to be affecting driving school class sizes yet, president of Open Road Driving School Jenny Turner said.

The new legislation took effect in July, allowing parents to apply to teach driver’s education without going through a certified instructor or school. That option was previously only available to parents of home-schooled children.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch reported the Iowa Department of Transportation is on track to receive nearly 600 applications from parents to teach driver’s education for the month of July, an increase of 900 percent over previous months.

But that increase hasn’t yet hurt Open Road Driving School, a private driving school that teaches in Washington, Fairfield, Iowa City, Wellman, and other areas around Iowa.

Turner said class sizes are still high.

“Our classes are the biggest they’ve ever been in the five or six years we’ve been operating,” she said.

She said the school would have a better understanding of the effects of the law over the next year.

Turner said while parent instruction may be a good option for some kids, most parents don’t have the expertise that can be taught by trained driving instructors.

In addition, she said many students say they get stressed driving with their parents, and an independent instructor provides a more calm environment for them to learn.

“It’s like your spouse telling you how to do your golf swing, family has a more emotional tie,” she said.

Turner said the law presents a challenge to driving schools to compete with the parent-taught option and improve their services.

“I think of it as a challenge to innovate, create, demonstrate the way to do things, and be better,” she said.