Current Events-2025

From the Columbus Dispatch:   2/2/2025

Ohioans are waiting until they are an adult to get their driver's license, meaning they can avoid driver's education training. doesn't require adults to take driver's education. That could change.

Currently, driver's education is only required for Ohioans younger than 18, but today more people are waiting until they are an adult to get their driver's license meaning they can avoid driver's education training altogether and simply pass an exam.

"We've got people who are just going out and driving," DeWine said. "They somehow managed to pass a test, they keep taking it until they pass it."

The overwhelming majority of car accidents in Ohio involve adult drivers, however the state only requires drivers education for those younger than 18. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, only 8% of licensed drivers involved in fatal crashes nationwide are between 15 and 18 years old.

The governor wants state lawmakers to require some drivers education for all new Ohio drivers regardless of age.

"To say that once you turn 18, you don't have to take any training just does not, frankly, make any sense at all," DeWine said.

Cost of driver's education causes many to wait to get a license

If you're younger than 18 in Ohio, you need to take an expensive driver's education class before a road test. Alternatively, you could wait for your 18th birthday and take the road test with less training and still get a driver's license.

Some of those classes can cost as much as $600.

Under current law, anyone younger than 18 needs to complete a class at a licensed driver training school with 24 hours of classroom or online instruction and eight hours of driving time. They also have to complete 50 hours of driving, including at least 10 hours of night driving.

Adults who fail the first attempt at the road test are required to take a shorter version of a driver training course.

Requiring more driver training fits into DeWine's crusade for safer driving measures. He also pushed to make driving without a seat belt a primary offense.