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Sorry, Texas kids and young adults -- one of your favorite loopholes on the road to getting a driver's license is closing next week.
Beginning March 1, every first-time applicant for a driver's license between the ages of 18-24 must take a driver's-ed course.
Before this, DPS spokesperson Tela Mange tells Hair Balls, some kids would wait until they were 18, pass the written test (which, to be sure, doesn't take a brainiac), and pass the driving test via skills they'd picked up driving illegally or on private property. No long, boring hours learning obscure safety yadda yadda.
"What happened was there were people who were like, you know driver's education -- pretty expensive. My parents annoy me; I don't want to do parent-taught," she says. "I'm going to wait until I turn 18, I'm gonna go in, and take the written test, and take the driving test, and I'll pass it and I'll get my license, and I won't have had to spend a lot of money on a [driver's-ed] course or a lot of time with my parents learning how to drive."
Now that option's out. Those people will have to take a course -- shorter than the ones kids under 18 take, but still a six-hour regulated course of study -- before they can get their license.
The Texas Education Agency will outline what is in the required course, Mange says.
A list of schools that offer the course can be found here.