Drivers education hasn’t been taught in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District for so long that most residents don’t even remember it. That means students today learn to drive through a mix of private classes and parental help.
Driving classes haven't been offered as a course in KPBSD schools since the late 80s or early 90s, depending on the school. Margaret Gilman, a longtime resident of the Kenai Peninsula and graduate of Kenai Central High School, said she remembers the class in 1982. She said Soldotna High School lost it between 1990 and 1991.
Gilman’s theory is that the class was removed from the curriculum sometime after the 1986 drop of oil prices, which caused financial issues for the district and a layoff of 10% of teachers that year. Jon Lillevik, a retired counselor at KCHS, says that in 1988, half of KCHS students moved to the newly built Nikiski Middle/High school, causing a shift in funds and the loss of the class. Soldotna High kept the class for another three years, until Skyview Middle School became a high school in 1992.
“Driving is a big responsibility and I think it needs to be treated as such. It’s not a game, it’s not a joke, it needs to be treated seriously,” said driving instructor Chris Lisenby. “Some really good things can happen when you get your license, but some really bad things can happen if we don’t take that responsibility seriously."
Lisenby runs and operates the Alaska Driving Academy, which is one of two driving schools still operating that has filled the gap for driving education on the Kenai. What started as a Commercial Drivers License, or CDL, school expanded into a full driving school in 2018. Lisenby said there are many positives of having drivers education, and he says he’d love to see it back in schools.
“With drivers education, we can actually educate them, not only what to expect when they’re behind the wheel, but before they even get behind the wheel,” Lisenby said.
Besides regular driving courses, Alaska Driving Academy also teaches a winter driving safety course.
But with class sizes running from four to six kids in size, the Alaska Driving Academy can only serve so many. About 130 kids come through their school in a year, according to Lisenby. Kenai Peninsula Driving Instruction in Kenai, which has been operating for six years, teaches about 150 students a year in their full courses. There are roughly 660 students of drivers ed age enrolled in the district.
Lisenby said formal drivers ed classes can take out the guesswork.
“When students drive with their parents and they get out, they want input. And a lot of the time, the input they get is, ‘Yeah, you did okay,”’ he said. “And I think with us, because we do driving evaluation, it helps them focus on, ‘Well, I’m doing good on these things, but I’m really struggling on these, and this is what I need to focus on to get better.”
Some kids get a combination of parent and classroom learning. Up-and-coming driver Sarah Brown said she plans to take the class.
“I feel like I'll learn different perspectives, and maybe just something new I didn’t know about the road,” Brown said. “My parents, they might not have known everything there is to know about driving.”
She said a driving instructor is more likely to know the specific rules of the road, like when to turn on your blinker.
But at $500 dollars a person, those classes aren’t in everyone’s price range even with the 10% discount of auto liability and collision insurance a student gets when they complete an accident prevention course.
While that’s a large cost up front, that added insurance is important. Sixteen and 17 year olds are at the greatest risk for a car accident.
Crash data from the Alaska Department of Transportation shows that starting in 1988, there was a continual increase in crashes for drivers age 17-19 on the Kenai Peninsula, before a steady decrease began in 2006. There was a peak of crashes for drivers in that age range between 1988 and 1992, right after some residents recall the class being removed, followed by another spike in 2000.
Current district officials say there are no plans to bring back the drivers ed class at this time. While the class previously didn’t include the 10% insurance break, it was free for students. Lisenby even said if the class comes back to schools, he’d be interested in teaching.
Having a class on the Kenai could be a game changer not only for student drivers, but also for the parents who worry about them.
