RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina lawmakers are at odds over the state’s driver’s education program, and Republican senators want to shift the responsibility for funding the training from the state to locals.

Currently, North Carolina teens must participate in a 30-hour class and send 60 hours behind the wheel with a driving instructor before gaining their license, but a new plan proposed in the state Senate would eliminate the classroom component and increase on-road time by 25 hours, WUNC reports.

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Students would be required to score an 85 percent on a written test – up from the current 80 percent threshold – and parents would be required to supervise the 85 hours of road time in the most recently amended bill.

A previous proposal would have eliminated state funding for driver’s education and shifted the responsibility to community colleges, a move that would ultimately cost parents about $400 per child, according to the news site.

Both proposals, which are part of the proposed Senate budget, would cut funding for driver’s education and eliminate it as a requirement for everyone under 18 years old. Eliminating state funding for driver’s education would save taxpayers $24.6 million, though that funding is included in a House version of the budget, WWAYTV 3 reports.

“Why do you want to play with people’s lives?” questioned North Carolina Driving School president Tony Moore, who opposes the changes. “It could be your child, a person who hits your child, or you.”

Moore told WUNC believes the change would result in an increase in traffic accidents because children allegedly don’t take lessons as well from their parents, he said.

Other concerned parents have also spoken out about the potential change.

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Editor Mark Rutledge penned an editorial for the Daily Reflector and Herald-Tribune spelling out why he thinks that eliminating the driver’s education requirement is a bad idea.

“My father’s approach to driver’s education was to have me chauffeur my mother to the grocery store and church starting at age 12. By the time I was 18, I had demolished four cars, two mailboxes and a garage door,” Rutledge wrote.

“It’s not that my dad didn’t give me solid instruction and advice. It’s just that I ignored most of it. Most kids, including my own, do not take instruction well from mom and dad.

“For instance, I spent the greater portion of a decade trying to convince my oldest daughter that seat belts are just as critical to preserving the lives of backseat passengers. The driver’s education teacher says it one time, and now she refuses to back out of the driveway unless everyone is buckled up.”

“A traffic writer at The News & Observer in Raleigh called the Senate proposal ‘the rock-solid wisdom of Pink Floyd’s “We don’t need no education,”’” he wrote. “I would place it closer to Ozzy Osbourne’s, ‘I’m goin’ off the rails on a crazy train.’”