The Choice Channel

How many times have you read or seen a news story and thought to yourself, “This is just plain silly?” I mean, the item is just so bizarre you can’t even believe it could be true. Such was the case for me this week when during one of my nightly editing searches I came across the headline that read, “Blind students required to pass driver’s ed,” at MSNBC.com. My very first reaction was, “This is just stupid! Too stupid to be true!” My next thought was how once again meddling politicians have blindly legislated a group of Illinois students into a totally unfair, not to mention ridiculous, graduation requirement.

Evidently the problem of “requiring” blind students to pass a driver’s education course in order to graduate high school lies at the doorstep of local bureaucrats. According to the Associated Press report published by MSNBC on March 10th, 2006, Illinois state law only requires school districts to “offer” driver’s education courses. But hundreds of school districts across the state have made it a required class for all their students, including those unfortunate pupils that happen to be blind. What were these local nanny-legislators thinking? Well, that’s the problem. They probably weren’t thinking.

Apparently, parents of visually-impaired students in the Illinois school systems can take matters into their own hands if they care to become proactive. According to Michael Vaughn, a spokesmen for the Chicago schools, “…parents of disabled students can, by law, request a change in their child’s individual education plan, which could include a driver’s ed exemption.” But according to both teachers and students within the school districts, that is a “little-known option” and they have been informed that passing a driver’s education course is a requirement for graduation from high school. I told you the local bureaucrats were not thinking.

Of course, these blind pupils are not being forced behind the wheel of a car and then asked to motor on down the highway. But, they are being forced to prepare for and pass “… a written rules-of-the-road exam in order to graduate.” Obviously these particular groups of students are being forced to waste their time on something that will never be of any use to them. The course is taking time from these blind students that would be better spent on other studies that would be more beneficial to them. It is typical nanny-state madness in its simplest form to require these students to pass even a written examination in driver’s education. Don’t they have enough problems already without politicians blindly creating even more ridiculous and unnecessary obstacles?

“It defies logic to require blind students to take this course.”
- Meta Minton, spokeswoman for the state Board of Education

So how does something like this happen, you might ask? Well, it’s like I said. Somebody was not thinking. I do not believe anyone, even thoughtless legislators, have purposely tried to make things more difficult for visually-impaired high school students in Illinois, or anywhere else for that matter. They just didn’t think about them when they decided to make driver’s education a requirement of graduation from high school. I even question the logic of requiring any students at all to pass driver’s education in order to graduate, but I can’t believe any thought whatsoever was given to the blind students of the districts in making such a decision. I am afraid it is a common problem of legislative committees of all sorts and school boards are certainly not exempt.

You see, it starts when a group of individuals get themselves elected to some sort of standing committee, be it anything from a local school board right on up to the Congress of the United States. All these folks have been elected “legislators” of one stripe or another and many of them take the term “legislate” quite literally. I mean, is it not only natural for a new “legislator” to want to “legislate” something or other? So, one of them, or a group of them, come up with what they think is a wonderful idea for a new rule, regulation, statute, or law. Then the fun starts.

You must understand that in the committee process it is not enough to have a good idea. Heck, you don’t even need a good idea, it could just as well be, and all too often turns out to be, a bad idea. On a committee all any idea really needs is support. If you can get yourself elected to one of these collective ruling bodies any idea you have can become law if you can just manage to get enough of your fellow committee members to vote, “Aye.” That is all it takes. So, once you have your idea the first thing you do is set out and try to convince other people to vote for your splendid new plan. A good politician will do almost anything to gain support for a “good” idea won’t they? Especially if it is “for the children.” But something is missing. Critical thought. Politicians become so blindly engrossed in getting what they want, that they often fail to fully realize what they are getting.

The first thing you should do after you have what you perceive as a great idea, is think about it. I mean really give it some serious thought, particularly if you are a legislator contemplating creating laws that will affect hundreds, or thousands, or even millions of individuals. Give some thought to the consequences that follow any action. Who will be affected by your idea? How will it affect them? Think about everyone involved, not just the most prominent or visual group. Consider all aspects of your new idea and especially consider if it is even necessary at all. Avoid the temptation to legislate just because you can. Always take a critical look at what you are about to do and remember blind high school students in Chicago being forced to pass driver’s education just so they can graduate. And, try to avoid having someone like me one day write about your brilliant plan because it turned out to be a stupid idea.