I am of the FIRM belief that there should be more financial and skill based barriers to owning a license to drive. It's treated as a right rather than a privilege. The fact that we have to continually engineer vehicles to make up for bad driving skills is pretty indicative of the real common denominator in most accidents.
I remember getting driver's ed via my HS and how much more importance was placed on backing up a vehicle rather than situational awareness and being aware of vulnerable road users. The whole process was and is a bit of a joke.