Driver Training Yields to Veto by Deukmejian : Education: Lack of funding forces school districts throughout the state to eliminate classroom and behind-the-wheel programs for teen-agers.

High school driver training classes have been eliminated or cut back throughout the state as the result of a $21.2-million budget veto by Gov. George Deukmejian in July.

Leslie McCage, of the state Department of Education, said Monday that “most districts have closed the door on the program” this fall. About 250,000 pupils in 950 high schools across the state took driver training last year.

In Orange County, more than half of the public high school districts have opted to suspend or find alternate funding sources for driver training courses, an informal survey by The Times shows.

The cuts have been met with anger and frustration by many school administrators in Orange County’s 15 high school districts, many of whom are already scrambling for funds.

Students who are unable to log the required behind-the-wheel time at the school level will have to turn to private driving schools for their lessons, which can cost hundreds of dollars.

“It might very well be a hardship to some students,” said Ken Jones, superintendent of the Fullerton Union High School District. “It is a district-by-district decision, but without the money, we are not going to reinstate (driver training) until the funding comes through.”

Jones, like other school officials around the state, said that the governor’s action has put districts in a bind. Without a commitment that the state will pay for driver training, officials say their budgets can’t absorb the costs. But students are required to show a certificate that they have completed a behind-the-wheel training course before they can get a license.

“Our concern, on a broader basis, is that kids are going to drive whether or not they have a license,” said Harold Hester, director of secondary education for the Capistrano Unified School District, which has also suspended classes until the money is reinstated.

Ramon Cortines, superintendent of schools in San Francisco, where driver training has been abolished, called the governor’s action a travesty.

“The research shows that kids with consistent behind-the-wheel training have fewer accidents than those who don’t have the training,” Cortines said. “With more immigrants coming to California from all over the world who don’t know U.S. driving habits, we need more driver training, not less.”

“Kids will drive anyway and we’ll all be in danger. I think it is a travesty not to look at the welfare of the entire state,” he added.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is offering driver training to less than half the usual number of students who take the course, while most districts in Los Angeles County have dropped the program. In Orange County, five school districts have dropped driver training while nine others have decided to keep it.

When Deukmejian signed the final state budget on July 31, he vetoed a $21.2-million appropriation for driver training classes. The governor said he favored behind-the-wheel instruction but that it should be paid for by Proposition 98 money, not by general state revenues.

Proposition 98 is the constitutional change approved by voters two years ago that guarantees public schools and community colleges about 40% of the state General Fund each year.

Department of Education officials say Deukmejian had no authority to veto the appropriation because it comes from money collected for traffic violations and is earmarked by law for driver training classes.

“It was a flagrant abuse of his authority,” said department spokeswoman Susan Lange.

Cynthia Katz, assistant director of the Department of Finance, said the governor had the right to veto the item and did so because “we had a $3.6-billion budget problem, which education was not a participant in solving.”

Ted Redenius, of the California Assn. for Safety Education, said Deukmejian vetoed the item because of “the antagonism between the governor and (State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill) Honig.

Redenius predicted that one or more school districts will sue to restore the funds.

As word of Deukmejian’s action began to circulate around the state, many school districts dropped driver training, which usually consists of six or eight hours of behind-the-wheel instruction in the 10th or llth grade. This follows 10 to 12 weeks of classroom driver education.

A teen-ager who has completed driver education and behind-the-wheel training successfully can obtain a driver’s license at age 16, but must wait until 18 otherwise.

“It’s among the most important courses we have in the curriculum, as far as the kids are concerned,” said Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena), a longtime driver training supporter. “When they get to be 16, they really want that license.”

The amount of money allocated to each district from the state varies with student attendence. The Anaheim Union High School District, for example, decided to go ahead with the program for the year and absorb the $349,000 in state funds that had been budgeted for the classes, according to Bobbie Azne, a district spokeswoman. But Garden Grove Unified, where about 1,700 students a year take driver training, had to put the program on hold.

As of last week, Garden Grove Unified, Fullerton Union High, Capistrano Unified, Irvine Unified, Orange Unified, Tustin Unified, Los Alamitos Unified and the Huntington Beach Union High School districts had suspended driver training classes, pending reinstatement of funds. Saddleback Valley Unifed opted to continue to offer the program but charge students $80 to take the class.

Maureen DiMarco, a member of the Garden Grove school board and the president of the California School Boards Assn., said that her district, which hopes to reinstate the program, is examining options for alternate funding. She called the state-level cuts “appalling” and “regressive,” noting that cutting the driver training will hurt students from poor families most.

Officials with Santa Ana Unified, the largest district in the county, have decided to keep driver training for now. Zeff Dena, the assistant director of secondary curriculum, said that the board took into consideration the high cost of private courses when making the decision.

“Due to the fact that we deal with a unique student population here, we decided to absorb the cost in our budget,” Dena said.

Richard Nicholson, a curriculum consultant for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, said that only Montebello and a few others districts in the county are continuing the program.

The Los Angeles Unified School District will conduct a “minimal program” this year, said Fred English, who has supervised driver education for 19 years. Last year, 28,500 Los Angeles high school students took driver training but that number will be cut to 13,000 this year unless a new governor and Legislature restore the money in January.

Los Angeles would have dropped the instruction altogether, English said, but the district employs 32 full-time driving instructors who were not sent layoff notices in time to meet state legal requirements and for whom no other jobs are available.

In Ventura County, several districts plan to move driver training to adult education programs, as a “community service” class and charge fees for instruction, said Mike Hernandez, of the Oxnard Union High School District.

However, Paul Smith, an attorney for the state Department of Education, said such action is probably illegal because legislation must be approved before fees can be charged for activities that are part of the regular school program.

Times correspondent Laura Michaelis contributed to this report.