Moira Stettner has had her learner’s permit for two years, but she has no immediate plans to get her license. Although the 18-year-old from Springfield, Vt., is eager to drive, her family simply can’t swing the cost of Moira getting her license and getting insurance.
“I’m frustrated that it’s prohibitively expensive,” said Kelly Stettner, Moira’s mother.
Getting a driver’s license used to be a coveted rite of passage for teenagers, a critical step toward independence. For many teens in the Upper Valley, however, getting a license is out of reach, often for financial reasons.
“Especially for our kids who are low income, it’s really hard,” said Katie O’Day, director of youth services at The Junction Youth Center in White River Junction.
Upper Valley teenagers aren’t unique. Across the country, fewer teens are opting to get a license. According to the Monitoring The Future survey, which is conducted yearly by the University of Michigan, the number of high school seniors with a driver’s license fell from 85.3 percent in 1996 to just 71.5 percent in 2015.
In Vermont there were 11,613 junior operators (16- and 17-year-olds with a license) in 2006, but just 9,140 in 2016, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Data on teen drivers in New Hampshire wasn’t available, although the DMV did provide data that showed the number of teens completing driver’s education has dropped slightly, from 14,949 in 2011 to 14,301 last year. Declining numbers of teen drivers might also reflect demographic changes in Twin States, where the median age is climbing.
Teens cite a variety of reasons for not getting their licenses, according to the survey by the University of Michigan. Thirty-seven percent said they were too busy or didn’t have enough time; 32 percent said owning and maintaining a car was too expensive; and 31 percent said they were able to get transportation from others. Surprisingly, only 8 percent said that their ability to communicate and do business online was their primary or secondary reason for not getting a license.
All of those reasons are reflected in the Upper Valley, although which is more important depends on where teenagers live.
“It’s all about money in Claremont,” said Sharon Cameron, owner of Twin State Driving Academy in Lebanon and president of the New Hampshire Driver Education Teachers Association. “Hanover and Lebanon are a different story. There the kids are too busy.”
Barriers to Getting a License
Both New Hampshire and Vermont require people under 18 to take driver’s education before they are able to get their license. However, there is one big difference: In Vermont, most high schools still provide driver’s education, including behind-the-wheel instruction, as part of the curriculum, so the course is available for free during school hours. In New Hampshire, however, most schools do not offer driver’s education, so teens must pay about $700 for both the course and behind-the-wheel instruction, and also find the time to complete the 46-hour program outside of the school day.
Rebecca Lundy, of Claremont, waited until she turned 18 to get her license because she could not afford driver’s education, especially if she had to give up work hours to complete the class.
“I didn’t have time for school, work and driver’s ed, but I would need a job to pay for driver’s ed,” she said. “I realized it would be cheaper to wait two years.”
Lundy got her license soon after turning 18 and said it helped her accomplish more.
“Having my license since I turned 18, it was easier for me to get to work and where I needed to go,” she said. “It helped me with my daily life.”
Lundy’s story highlights a common issue around licensing. Often the teens who need to drive the most to get to work and avoid isolation face the most difficulty in getting their license because of lack of resources.
“It’s very important to get your license here (in the Upper Valley),” O’Day said. However, even teens who can take driver’s education in school still need access to a car and a driver who is at least 25 years old in order to complete the 40 hours of required driving outside the class.
“That has been a huge barrier from what I’ve seen,” O’Day said.
Teens also need to be able to borrow a car to take the road test, and pay for both the test ($19 in Vermont) and the issuance of a license ($32).
Rich Kearney, owner of Upper Valley Driving Academy and a driving teacher at Woodstock Union High School, said he sees teens turning to neighbors or grandparents to help cover the required 40 hours of home driving.
“I do have a handful of students (who) don’t have the ability to drive at home because their families can’t afford to drive, but they see their driver’s license as necessary to advance,” he said. “In the Upper Valley, a driver’s license is key to survival.”
In a rural area with limited public transportation and taxi services, having a license is essential for getting to work, as well as accessing community resources, Kearney said.
Programs that can help cover the cost of getting a license or arranging a car for driving hours are usually targeted at adults who need a license to gain employment. Although Vocational Rehabilitation and the Department of Labor offer some assistance, the most vulnerable teens are often left with nowhere to turn.
For example, having a program in which teens can complete driver’s education in a weekend would be one way to help those who are working, or who don’t have access to a car, get their license, she said.
“I think that would be a higher success rate because they can do it in one stop. It’s not all these hurdles you have to jump though,” she said. “Adults don’t realize that young adults have a lot of stuff going on. They’re in school all day and working a job. Juggling all that is really difficult. We don’t give them enough credit for that.”
Insurance is another huge cost for young drivers and their families, and is the primary reason why Moira Stettner isn’t yet licensed. Even with a good-student discount, the 18-year-old would cost $1,360 per year to insure, something that her mother, Kelly Stettner, said the family can’t afford.
At the same time, not having a license limits the work she can do, her mother said.
“She’s been frustrated that she can’t drop me off at work in the morning and then have the car to get herself to any sort of day job. She does yard work and child-sitting, and has to be limited to evenings or getting rides,” Stettner said. “She’s trying to earn money for college and not having her license is very frustrating.”
For now, there are no plans for her daughter to get her license until she is out of the family home and no longer required to be on the family’s insurance.
“We’re going to leave it up to her once she’s out there,” Stettner said.
‘They’re Not in Any Hurry’
Cost isn’t the only barrier to teens driving. Cameron said she sees many students take driver’s education but not get their license right away.
“They’re not ready, they don’t need it, or they don’t want it,” she said. “They’re not in any hurry.”
Lexi Rowe, 17, of Springfield, Vt., understands that. She has access to free driver’s ed through school, but she is not eager to get behind the wheel.
“Right now I don’t see it as a big deal,” Rowe said. “I’m actually content with not having my license.”
Rowe’s mom drives her most places she needs to be or she can catch a ride with friends, she said. Although she plans to drive eventually — probably when she leaves for college next year — Rowe has not had the motivation to drive sooner, especially since a bad car accident in her childhood left her a bit apprehensive about getting behind the wheel.
“Obviously, if I had (my license), I would have more freedom and independence, but it doesn’t have a huge effect on the things I do in my life,” she said.
O’Day said some teens aren’t willing to deal with the uncomfortable process of getting a license.
“For this population and this time period, our kids who are really afraid of failure and have anxiety around meeting new people, sitting in a car with a stranger is hell,” she said.
Even adults hate trips to the DMV, and many teens just aren’t motivated to jump through all the hoops to get a license.
“I understand they have to get over that, but that’s not going to help them in this particular situation,” O’Day said.
An Industry in Trouble
While the cost of driver’s education is a big barrier for many students in New Hampshire, Cameron, of Twin State Driving Academy, said the industry is facing its own struggles. The cost of running a driver’s education course is high, she said, forcing schools to raise their prices even though that may keep some teens from taking the courses.
“Learning one-on-one with an instructor is essentially a college course, and you don’t find a college course for $725,” she said.
In New Hampshire the cost of driver’s education used to be supplemented by money from vanity plates, but in 2012 that reimbursement for schools was taken away, Cameron said, and the cost had to be passed to students and their families.
“The price wasn’t going to change. They just changed who’s paying it,” she said.
At the same time, the industry is facing a shortage of driver’s education instructors.
In addition to fewer teens taking driver’s education, organizations such as AAA are pushing to make portions of the course available online. Although traditional driver’s educators have fought against that, many people feel that becoming a driving instructor is not a stable occupation.
“Every time you go through that (fewer) people come into the profession because it looks perilous,” Cameron said.
Still, Cameron insists that in-person driver’s education is essential to keeping teens safe on the road.
“There are a portion of parents who are going to teach kids to drive well and there are a portion of students who should never drive,” she said. “It’s the 80 percent in the middle that we can effect change with, who we are trying to reach and teach.”