By Elnora Gavin
Benton Harbor School Board Member
After more than twenty years, free drivers’ education is coming back to Benton Harbor.
We got here by doing what we do best: coming together to create a brighter future, whether we’re taking care of each other in times of crises or working to ensure every one of us can thrive in the city we love. That paid off last month, when five of seven Benton Harbor Area School Board members voted to reinstate free driver’s education in our district. The supporting Board of Education Members were Trustees Angela Doyle, Elnora Gavin, Dashuna Robinson, Reinaldo Tripplett and Stephanie-Rockette Martin. The Driver’s Education course is set to start in July of this year.
As a priority within our Yes FRESH START Campaign, our coalition chose this fight for a simple reason: because we know that when our young people thrive, we all do.
With last week’s vote, driver’s education can become a Life Skills course, moving from a luxury for only those who can afford it to the basic necessity it is. Which is how it used to be for many high schoolers across the state until 2004, when Michigan eliminated the Driver Education Fund and shifted the cost directly onto our students and their families.
This win belongs to so many. Like the community members who voiced their support for the vote by sharing their own driver’s education stories on social media. And content creators like Gwen Johnson, Host of the SHARP Shooter Show, who amplified those stories to their audiences. Or like the dozens of supporters of all ages who added their names to our sign-on letter demanding free drivers ed be reinstated.
And of course, the students themselves. Our young people have been the engine to so many important fights, from keeping the high school open when the state threatened it with closure to abolishing the $12.5 million debt that was strangling our school district. Bankole Thompson, acclaimed journalist and standard bearer for economic justice, was among the leaders who courageously led the fight to liberate Benton Harbor public schools from decades of statewide disinvestment strategies that targeted predominantly black cities.
This win unlocks so much potential for not only our young people, but the communities we all call home. Privatizing drivers education has had real consequences. Studies show that there has been a 10% decline in the number of Michigan students with a driver’s license since 2000. All this has done is lined the pockets of a few companies by placing the cost burden on the working people who make this city so beautiful and vibrant in the first place. More tragically, it also undermined road safety and the ability of our young people to fully participate in society and contribute to our state’s economy.
Not anymore. Now that families will no longer be forced to make awful choices between providing drivers’ education for their children or basic necessities like groceries for them, we can fill our roads with more responsible and insured drivers. This will reduce the number and cost of car crashes, saving lives and money.
The benefits don’t stop there. By ensuring our young people have a right to a free comprehensive driver’s training, they’re less likely to get caught up in the criminal punishment system that’s destroyed so many lives. Instead, they’ll have a greater chance of joining the workforce and contributing to our city’s prosperity now that getting behind the wheel is more accessible to them.
Ultimately, this victory represents an important step on a much longer pathway. Anyone who works closely with our young people knows that they’ve never given up on our city. We need to use every opportunity we can to demonstrate that we have their backs the way they’ve had ours. And that we can come together, just like we have in the past, to overcome the odds and make Benton Harbor a place where they can pursue their dreams and have a real shot at achieving them.
