Over the last 8 or 9 months, I have noticed that even as my new-applicant classes have been consistently full (and occasionally, I have to turn away potential students), my renewal classes have been getting smaller. There were two changes in the law that could affect this, one of which hasn’t really kicked in yet.
The change that is already having an effect is that after your 2nd renewal, you only have to get a new TR100 every 10 years (you still have to renew and pay the fee, but you only have to take a renewal class every other renewal).
The change that will kick in next year is the extension of the renewal period from 4 years to the current 5 years. I expect renewal classes to shrink substantially for a while after the last of the 4 year licenses come up for renewal, then slowly come back up over a period of several months.
I recall at the last instructor re-certification that there were a lot of grumbles about both of those changes, and speculation that it would reduce the incomes of CHL instructors. So far, I have not found that to be the case, since the surge in new applicants has more than made up for the lack of renewals.
And, fortunately, I don’t do CHL classes for a living.
I have been hearing from my March and April students that they haven’t gotten their licenses yet. According to a local radio news story, the DPS is experiencing a tremendous surge in new applicants, up more than 40% over this time last year. One of my students called down there twice, and was told that they are just now getting around to opening the packets that arrived in late March.
OUCH! That means they’ve already busted the 60-day statutory requirement for giving an answer to the application! But it’s not their fault, and it’s not your fault (or my fault). They are simply overwhelmed by the unexpected workload.
I have also heard from some renewal students who have not received their renewal licenses in time. If you are up for renewal DO NOT PUT IT OFF, but get the application and course done as soon as you can.
One other little detail: After 7 years of having a fingerprint reject rate well under 1%, all of a sudden the DPS is rejecting a large portion of my ink-rolled fingerprints. I am now urging all of my students to take advantage of the $10 digital fingerprinting service offered by the range where I teach. They’ve been pushing everybody to go digital for a while now.
There isn’t a whole lot I can do about it other than hope that our legislature approves some more funding for the horribly under-funded CHL program. In that regard, I don’t have any special pull with the legislature — you might help out by sending a (politely worded) request to your local legislator to please increase the funding for the DPS CHL program.