By Mallory Cage
Edited by Corbin Ensminger
The idea of taking away driver's licenses from S.C. high school students if they drop out is closer to becoming law.
But State Motor Vehicles Director Kevin Shwedo said Thursday he is worried about what he estimates as the $500,000 cost of the bill approved by the Senate's K-12 Education Subcommittee.
"It's an expensive law to put in place when only 33 percent of 16-year-olds and 50 percent of 17-year-olds are actually getting their licenses," Shwedo said.
The bill has already passed the House. If it clears the Senate before the session ends in June and if the governor approves, it will become law.
Students who drop out would not be able to get their licenses until they turn 18, join the military, re-enroll in school or enroll in a high school equivalency degree program. Parents or guardians could also argue that a teen needed a license to support themselves or their immediate family.
"Young people value that license, and this would create an incentive to keep them in school," said Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, who voted for of the bill.
Similar bills have already been passed in about 20 other states, including Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.
Sen. Wes Hayes, R-York, the subcommittee chairman, reluctantly gave his support, saying forcing students to stay in school doesn't always work.
"Oftentimes they're a distraction to other students," he said. "This seems to be a crutch for not finding a way to deal with our dropout rates."
As of November, South Carolina ranked 49th in the U.S. in overall on-time graduation rates with 73.6 percent, according to the state Education Department.
Shwedo said his cost estimate was based on DMV's having to set up computer links with school districts and the need for three more employees to do that.
However, Rep. Tom Young, R-Aiken, the bill's sponsor in the House, said that a large part of the $500,000 was to print new driver's education manuals, and that that could be lowered if inserts were printed instead.
Hayes said the cost of students dropping out far outweighed the costs the bill could create.
