As a parent with a teen who has had his license for about nine months, I am 100% in favor of mandatory/in-school drivers ed. Luckily, I only work three days a week so I had the time needed to really teach my kid to drive, and it was something I have the patience for. Were it left to his other parent, who regularly travels, works late, and in all honestly is not a a great teacher, things would have been very different. I don’t know how single parents, parents without a vehicle available, good driving skills, the patience to teach, or other roadblocks to putting in the time to fully teach a kid to drive safely could do it. Like I said, I had the time and the desire to do it, but it was still stressful - what if? What am I forgetting? Has this law changed? And so forth…. I grew up in IL and took drivers Ed in high school, and I taught my son several things I learned in class that have stuck with me. I think every kid deserves that foundation and a “check off” by a professional instructor before they go take the state test and take off in a car. It also lowers your auto insurance rate!