Why Oregon is seeing a shortage of driving instructors

School is out for summer vacation, but some Oregonians are still in the classroom taking a driver’s education course. At the same time, the state is currently seeing a shortage of people who can actually teach the course. Michelle Godfrey is the public information officer for the Oregon Department of Transportation. Nancy Haase is the program manager for the High Desert Driver Education Program. They both join us to share some of the reasons behind the Driver’s Ed instructor shortage and how that may affect new drivers in the state.

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Geoff Norcross: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Geoff Norcross. The COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting our lives in all kinds of ways. People who taught drivers education retreated from that work during the time of social distancing and they haven’t come back. The state of Oregon has a shortage of drivers ed instructors right now. We’re gonna talk about what this means for people who want to take those courses and what’s being done to fix the problem. Michelle Godfrey is the public information officer for the Oregon Department of Transportation, and Nancy Haase is the program manager for the High Desert Driver Education Program in Central Oregon. Michelle, Nancy, welcome to Think Out Loud.

Michelle Godfrey: Thank you, Geoff.

Norcross: Michelle, you first. How many instructors do we have in the state right now? And how many do we need?

Godfrey: Currently we have 291 state certified instructors, and not all of them are necessarily working. We need as many as we can have because we’re under-providing driver education around the state, and we’re especially concerned about rural areas that aren’t getting as much instruction as they could benefit from. And that’s the key thing is that the value of Oregon teen drivers education is that teens who take driver education are 25% less likely to be in a crash. They have a 57% lower rate of traffic convictions. They can save 15% on their car insurance. And for the teen, they get to waive their driver’s test and do half the practice time they need to get their license. So it’s really a win/win to be able to get the program. But providing it is a real challenge right now.

Norcross: What has that shortage meant for those kids who want to take the program?

Godfrey: Well, it likely means that they have to wait longer to get into a course, or they have to be inconvenienced by driving farther to get to one, or go to another area. It’s a challenge.

Norcross: And have to have somebody drive them there. Nancy Haase, you’re in Central Oregon. How many openings do you have?

Nancy Haase: Well, we currently have three new instructors that just started from our spring training that we hosted here in Central Oregon. But of course, we need more, especially behind the wheel instructors. Our enrollment is solely based on how many students can be actually driven during the program. So we can put 30 students in a classroom with one instructor, but each one of those 30 students has to get it in a car with a behind the wheel instructor. So if we don’t have those instructors lined up, then we have to limit our enrollment.

Norcross: What does it mean for a kid who wants to take the course but can’t? What are the other options for them?

Haase: Well, we do have a new program that started here in Central Oregon and we’re excited to have them join us for the driving programs. It’s actually one of our employees that she and her husband decided to start their own drivers ed program, which was great. But even so, we have a wait list of sometimes 50 to 100 students that can’t get into one of our sessions.

Norcross: And what has this meant for your team, workload wise? I know you can’t take on more students than 30, but has it meant that the instructors you do have have had to work more?

Haase: Well we can take on more than 30. For instance, last summer we were able to have twice as many classes in Bend and Redmond, and one in Madras. But this year we were able to have two 30 student classes in Bend, that starts next week, and then two here in Redmond. So we had to reduce our numbers quite a bit. And then I am a part time manager, and I’m also an instructor. And we only have one full time instructor in our program, and the other ones are at will, which means that each session I have to find out what they’re available for. So that is a limitation also, when I only have so many instructors and they can either say “yeah, I want to work” or “no I want this session off.” So it’s a challenge.

Norcross: Why do they have that kind of flexibility? I guess I’m asking what kind of people show up for this kind of work, and what are their circumstances?

Haase: A lot of them are retired instructors. I know we have a retired policeman, we have had instructors that have been retired from UPS, we have current instructors that are full time employees either in the school district and want this as a second income, or in other types of employment. So that’s just how our program is set up. Our program really can’t support more than the full time people that we have on board right now. And most of our employees like that, so that they can work when they’re available, especially if they’re retired.

Norcross: Michelle Godfrey, I mentioned the pandemic as a major driver of the shortage. What are some of the other ones?

Godfrey: Well, one key factor is the shortage of instructor trainers. We have about 10 trainer trainers right now for the Oregon Teen Driver Education program, and they do this as a second job. Some of them are school teachers or administrators of programs. And the courses to train trainers takes 9 to 10 weeks, and it’s all hosted on weekends. It’ll take up the entire weekend sometimes. So those people who have full time jobs may not be able to commit to that amount of extracurricular time. So it’s very challenging.

Nancy is talking about the Spring Academy that they have. we offer these three week academies in rural areas of Oregon, where an instructor candidate would go every day, full days, for three weeks in order to be certified as an instructor. And while that’s a concentrated amount of time, it is a serious time commitment. And that’s because the extent of the training that’s required, as Nancy was describing, you need to have behind the wheel training, you need to have very specific training in classroom instruction to work with kids and be able to convey the material in a way that they’ll be able to retain. So that’s challenging.

Norcross: And I’m hearing a theme developing here, it seems like the drivers ed program in Oregon relies heavily on people who can work part time or at will, and that seems to be limiting.

Godfrey: It seems to be. And we lost so many during the pandemic, not just because folks didn’t want to be in a car with someone because you can’t social distance in a vehicle, but we also had to close a number of schools and programs because of that. And without opportunities for certified instructors to be able to teach, they’re not likely to stay in the program. So that’s a key component, as well as being able to assure an instructor that they’ll be able to teach a course and get their hours once they’ve been certified. And having more and more driver ed courses feeds into that instructor demand.

So it all works together. We need more instructors, we need more courses, we need more trainer of trainers. And it all really just comes down to funding. More funding allows us to have more people on the ground, allows us to sponsor more courses more often and in more areas.

Norcross: From your position at the Oregon Department of Transportation, why is this concerning when it comes to public safety and the law?

Godfrey: Well, driver education is not mandatory. A student can study the driver manual, all the information is in there, they can study that closely and pass their exam, and they can, with 100 hours of practice time with a licensed adult, fulfill the driving time requirements. So it’s not necessary to get into a driver education program.

But the statistics show that when kids get into the program, they’re less likely to be involved in crashes, they’re less likely to be involved in traffic convictions. The safety rate is really significant, especially for those young kids. In their first year of driving, age 16, 17, it’s really important that they have a good solid basis for understanding the rules of the road, and get the experience behind the wheel that they need.

Norcross: Nancy, let’s turn to you. What is your pitch to attract potential instructors? How do you get them to come on board?

Haase: Well, we have done a lot of recruiting, especially since we were hosting that spring training here, because without those trainings here in central Oregon, any recruit has to go over the mountain to Salem, Eugene for the most part for that certification program. And so when we talk to the potential employee, of course we’re wanting to know what their background is. But one of the stumbling blocks is the fact - matter of fact this morning I had a man stop by, he wanted to see about the position, and when I started talking about it and the certification, he went “oh wait a minute, I wanted to do something this summer.” Well, the training is necessary. And it’s very complete, it’s put on by Western Oregon University, but it is quite lengthy. It’s weekends, and this next one we have starting September 9th in Central Oregon it’s gonna be eight weekends. But what’s exciting about that is three of those classes are gonna be on Zoom. So if they can’t commit to the whole date of that training, then they’re not gonna be able to get certified.

I can’t just throw somebody the keys that say “hey, this sounds like a great job” and have them driving in a week or two. So it is a pretty lengthy training, necessary training. But it detours some people, if they need a job right away.

Norcross: What about the money? Is it enough money for people?

Haase: Well, it’s not bad. We hope to increase the hourly rate as we increase our enrollment, and because the more students we have, the more funding. We’re not for profit here at the ESD, and right now we don’t have any grants that come in to subsidize any of the tuition for our students. So they do have to pay a tuition. And of course, we get some funding from ODOT for all the students that graduate or complete the program. So that’s the frustration. It’s a constant recruiting for us where we’re always looking for people that are interested. But then we have to fit them into that training, which is sometimes tricky.

Norcross: It sounds like there are two major objections here. It’s the time commitment for the training, which people didn’t realize they would have to be so in for when they first signed up. And maybe secondarily the money. How do you address those hurdles with them? How do you, how do you get around those concerns?

Haase: Well, we do pay a stipend for the time that they have to take the training. We offer that after they have committed and been hired by us. We have a 6 to 7 week session, six of those every year, and once they have worked for us and shown a commitment to our program, then we give them that reimbursement for their time, and reimburse them for the tuition for the training.

And we also pay for anyone that is a PERS employee, we pay their PERS. So that is an added benefit to them as well, on top of the hourly.

Norcross: So Michelle, it seems like there are efforts afoot to try to close this gap. But in the meantime, for students who want to take the course and they end up getting waitlisted, are there other options for them? What can they do instead, if anything?

Godfrey: Well, the best thing I’d recommend is to work with your parents and perhaps do your own self study at home. Design a training program. It does put more burden on parents, and I get it that that’s hard. Or maybe there’s another adult sponsor that a kid could go to, to work with them on studying the manual and getting the practice time. That’s the key thing, is the more time behind the wheel, the safer the driver is going to be once they get licensed. That’s why we have after a year less restrictions on drivers and their behaviors.

And there are also other driver education programs that are not necessarily Oregon Teen Driver Education. Now, be careful as you’re evaluating those programs, they may not allow the teen to take the exam as part of the program. They may still have to take the driver test, and they may still require the 100 hours of practice behind the wheel with an adult signing off. The benefit of that is that they get the safety education that is so valuable in preventing crashes and accidents and harm to the teen driver. But you still have to go through what you would normally have to go through if you were just doing it yourself.

There are clearly advantages to taking the Oregon Teen Driver Education program. So we would love to be able to offer more and more courses and get into more areas of the state more frequently. I’m very encouraged by the proliferation of Zoom and online options for people where they can do part of the courses online. But the challenge is you just can’t clip out of any part of the program. You’ve got to be there every day that it’s offered. We can’t even offer an excuse for really even one day of the program, because that’s some kind of critical piece of safety that that instructor might miss. But being able to offer more flexible options, like the three week program at High Desert and the four month program that are offered in other areas on weekends, different types of modes, hybrid courses, all this kind of stuff allows us to be a little more flexible.

Norcross: Well Nancy Haase, for anybody who’s listening and might think this might be a good program to be a part of and they want to be an instructor, I’m curious what inspired you to get into driver’s ed, especially for teens?

Haase: Well, I always joke with my students that when it came through - the notice that they needed drivers - I was working at the school district part time, and then I was a part time dance instructor. So I thought “well, I could do this.” So I applied for it, and didn’t realize that it was going to involve so much training. Initially, it was just an extra way to make money.

But as I got into it, this is my 11th year, I’ve realized how important this program is to our young teens. And now, this is my second full time year with the program. And I’m going into my second year of managing the program, and still instructing, which I enjoy tremendously.

It’s such a rewarding experience to see these kids get behind the wheel, especially the ones that are so timid and so afraid of driving, and see their confidence build. And then also having the students that have a lot of driving experience, that maybe come to the program with some bad habits that they acquired somewhere along the line, and trying to level that out so that they become safer. It’s a very rewarding profession. We have wonderful instructors that enjoy doing this on a part time basis.

Norcross: Last question for both of you. Who taught you how to drive Nancy?

Haase: I took it in high school. It was in Southern California and it was part of our curriculum.

Norcross: Michelle, How about you?

Godfrey: High school driver education class, in Missouri where I went to high school.

Norcross: It was mom and dad for me. Michelle, Nancy, thanks so much.

Michelle Godfrey is the public information officer for ODOT and Nancy Haase is the program manager for High Desert Driver Education.

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