Driver's education is beneficial when applying for car insurance; lowering your rates. However, driver's education has changed. It was hot in schools in the 1950s, a product of the great highway building boom.

But public school driver's education began to decline in the early 1980s after research that said teenagers who took such courses had the same rate of accidents and injuries as those who didn't. Federal funding for driver's education dried up, and most states ended their programs.

Since many parents want the benefits of driver's ed for both their car insurance rates and their offspring's' safety, but cannot spend the time, paid driver's education courses are the answer.

But the long decline of driver's education may be ending. Some states, prodded by a growing coalition of public school instructors and safety groups, are rethinking the way teens learn the rules of the road. Driver's education officials are upgrading and standardizing what teens are taught, putting an emphasis on anticipating risky situations.

The marketplace has also jumped in to rapidly fill the empty space. Safe Smart Women, a non-profit group in Silver Spring, MD.,has classes for women drivers in 12 cities. Florida-based New Driver Car Control Clinics located in 10 states has half-day seminars which situate teen drivers and one parent inside an auto while experts radio over directions on how to brake at the car's limit and veer while retaining control. Even the AARP has an 8-hour classroom refresher Driver Safety Program to teach the effects of aging on driving and how you can adjust your driving.

At the Skip Barber School's $600 , one-day program for teenagers, drivers speed through an obstacle course -- the champagne slalom -- as fast as they can while trying to balance a tennis ball in an oversized cup on the hood of the car, an exercise designed to demonstrate the relationship of braking,cornering and acceleration.

Other classes have a radical new approach to traditional driver's education: using hip young instructors to guide teens through hair-raising maneuvers on a track so they can survive the unexpected on the road. Students learn safe driving techniques and get plenty of behind-the-wheel training.

Drivers Education has a green side too- By training in hybrids, students complete thousands of miles of training but use less fuel and create fewer carbon emissions. More and more programs are using these vehicles with great success. Drivers Ed Direct is a small driver's education firm in Los Angeles that exclusively uses hybrid vehicles; specifically the Ford Escape. The popularity of hybrid vehicles in southern California is one of the keys to Drivers Ed Direct's success.

There is even fun driving class. Comedy Guys Entertainment combining a bunch of professional comedians and a defensive driving school. Approved by Texas Department of Public Safety, instruction is in-class work, done in fine restaurants with meals and refreshments included.

For the time being, numerous car insurance companies charge lower rates for teenage drivers who have had driver's education. That's one important reason to make driver's education an important part of a teen's life.