Like graduated teen driver's licensing, it sounds simple enough: if you want to get a driver’s license, you need to stay in school. Drop out, and you’ll either be ineligible for driving privileges or you’ll run the risk of having your license revoked.

That’s what’s being considered in states all across America, and a surprisingly large number of drivers (68 percent, according to PSCars) support the idea. Motorists in Georgia, Texas, Massachusetts, New York and Michigan are especially in favor of the anti-drop-out laws, while residents of Florida, California, Illinois, Ohio and Washington, D.C. are the most opposed to it.

Will such a plan work? Opinions differ, and John Duffy, a clinical psychologist specializing in parent-child interaction offered, “A punishment rarely creates a desired behavior, and, in the case of forcing a child to remain in school, will not help intrinsically motivate that child either. “

On the other hand, Hernan Jaramillo, vice president of Practical Systems (parent to the company that conducted the research cited), felt that license deprivation could be an effective tool, saying, “We have to find a way to discourage students from dropping out. It’s a step in the right direction to remove what most high school students crave the most, a driver’s license.”

Who’s right and who’s wrong will be determined soon enough if the proposed legislation gets passed.

The legislation does fail to address one obvious question: license or not, will new laws actually prevent teen drop-outs from getting behind the wheel?

[Wards Auto]