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Driving School Under Scrutiny May Have Testing Privileges Permanently Revoked

DENVER (CBS4)- The Attorney General of Colorado may permanently revoke the testing privileges of a driving school in Denver. The owner of Ola's Driving School was suspended last week after allegedly taking bribes for certifying exams.

It's one of several recent scandals involving driving schools in Colorado. Now others in the industry are defending what they call responsible educational companies.

For more than 20 years, DriveSafe instructors have been teaching teenagers and others in the classroom and behind the wheel.

DriveSafe is one of 185 schools certified by the State of Colorado is to offer license tests.

"Ask the individual who tries to sign up for a driving test through the Department of Motor Vehicles and is told they have to wait for three weeks. Three weeks, five weeks, I think they would say the third party testers are invaluable," said DriveSafe Owner Ben Baron.

Two recent scandals, one involving Ola's Driving School, have raised concerns about third party testers. In another case, an instructor at the American Driving Academy was charged with bribery and mail fraud for allegedly accepting bribes for falsifying driving tests.

Baron is also the Vice President of the Driver's Education Association of Colorado.

"I'm very happy to have the bad apples rooted out of our industry," said Baron.

Baron would like to see the current paper-based system upgraded to a technology-based system to administer driving exams.

The operator of Ola's Driving School has 30 days to appeal the move to revoke his certification.

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