DRIVER EDUCATION COOPERATIVE: A PROGRAM SAVER

Driver education cooperatives have become a model for small rural counties looking for ways to maintain their driver education programs and still reduce costs. This article describes how the Wayne County (Ohio) Cooperative Driver Education Program and other Ohio cooperative programs work. Wayne County is a rural county consisting of 7 local school districts, 2 city districts, and one exempted village. Alternative driver education programs were investigated in an effort to reduce the rising cost of driver education, and the establishment of a driver education cooperative was recommended. Each participating school would provide for its own classroom teacher, and the county would provide a 2-phase laboratory program--Simulation and B-T-W. A minimum of four districts was considered to be necessary and all participating schools would share equally in the costs of the cooperative rather than on a per pupil basis billing. Details of the operation and costs of the program are summarized.