More Wasted Tax-Dollars
I just spent the better part of two days taking my granddaughter to get her driver's license. There is only one person at the courthouse who administers both the written examination and the road test. Additionally, this Public Safety Dept. officer handles license transfers from other states and various other activities. The officer, of course, can handle only a certain number of prospective licensees in a day's time. When I was there, there were at least twice as many applicants as the officer could possibly process. Those who cannot get their names on the list early enough must wait until the next day and try again. Most of those waiting must stand for several hours because there is a severe shortage of seating in the narrow hallway outside the Driver's License office.
My granddaughter had, the previous year, taken and passed the Driver Education course at school. The Driver Education Program is sponsored and funded through the Alabama Education Department. I had suspicioned that there must be some Federal Title money involved in the program, but thus far I have not been able to find any such documentation. Therefore, I must assume that the Drivers Ed. program must be funded by Alabama taxpayers, just as is the Alabama Public Safety Department which performs the licensing examinations.
It appears to me that there is a gross overlap of spending with the two divisions performing much the same service, not to mention the great inconvenience to those waiting for licensing examinations, which could be streamlined into a more efficient process and result in less expense to the taxpayer. Would it not be reasonable to assume that students who have passed the Driver's Ed course in school, and recieved a certificate of completion, should be able to go to the courthouse and get their driver's license without being re-tested by the Public Safety Department?
Many, if not most, of the candidates for licenses at the courthouse are students who are seeking their learner's permits or their first driver's license. There is no logical reason that this group could not be handled through their school's Driver Education Program, thus freeing the over-burdened officer at the courthouse to handle license transfers and testing others who have lost their driving privileges or who may have other special needs. This would reduce the backed-up lines at the courthouse and perhaps even diminish the tax burden on the rest of us!
