EVERETT — A state insurance industry group is setting up a scholarship fund to help hundreds of spurned students get behind the wheel again.
The Northwest Insurance Council on Tuesday offered $24,000 to pay for driving lessons for some of the 500 students whose journey to a driver’s license was cut short last month with the abrupt closure of the Sno-King Driving School.
“It was the right thing to do to help these students get the training that they need,” Darrin Sanger with the nonprofit insurance group said.
Allstate, Enumclaw Insurance Group, Grange, PEMCO and State Farm contributed to the fund.
The assistance is in addition to offers from six driving schools that already have made free driver’s education classes and discounted behind-the-wheel lessons available to Sno-King students who were not able to complete their training.
“We’ve tried to take as much pain out of the hands of the families as possible,” said Fred Wright, president of the newly-formed Professional Driving Schools Association of Washington.
“It should be fun getting your driver’s license. It’s a time of transition into a different stage of life for these young people, and it’s been kind of tarnished.”
The state Department of Licensing is investigating the sudden closure of Sno-King in late April.
About 500 students were enrolled in classes when the school closed down, said Selena Davis, a spokeswoman with the agency.
A note posted on the school’s Everett headquarters said the school was closed and its owner, Bob Hall, 61, had left the country.
Hall, a former Mukilteo School Board president, has a history of legal and financial troubles.
Sno-King offered classes for students at Cascade High School in Everett, Jackson High School in Mill Creek and Kamiak High School in Mukilteo.
Some of the students who paid $450 in tuition had just a single lesson left. Others hadn’t begun their training.
Wright said scholarship amounts will depend on how many students enroll in courses at four participating schools.
Scholarships will be available only for former Sno-King students who enroll at 911 Driving School, Defensive Driver Training School, Munro’s Driving School and SWERVE Driver Training, said Wright, who is also the chief executive of Redmond-based SWERVE, which now offers classes at Kamiak, according to its Web site.
Margo’s Safety 1 Driving School in Arlington and A-Team Driving School in Lynnwood have told the state they will donate classroom instruction for displaced students and provide driving lessons at cost.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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