JASPER, Ga. --- In an attempt to cut the toll of teenage car crashes, Georgia lawmakers passed a law three years ago promising public money to jump-start driver's education courses across the state.

But so far the law's promise of widespread courses has rung hollow. Now the measure's sponsor is having second thoughts and some of the bill's most vocal supporters say they feel betrayed.

"It's extremely frustrating. It didn't turn out the way we wanted it," said Alan Brown, who helped write the law after his 17-year-old son Joshua was killed in a 2003 car wreck. "We thought we were getting driver's education in local school systems. We ended up getting a lot of talk and no action."

Adopted in 2005 on the urging of state Sen. Preston Smith, Joshua's Law requires 16-year-olds to pass a driver's education course offered by their schools or a private instructor to get a license.

The law provided funding for the courses, but classes are still mainly confined to places where local officials put up the majority of funding. The Georgia Driver's Education Commission hasn't paid for them, partly because it hasn't requested funds to do so.

State lawmakers -- accustomed to fending off inflated requests from state agencies -- sound stunned that the group hasn't even asked for the money.

"It has raised millions of dollars -- millions of dollars -- that hasn't been spent," state Rep. Alan Powell complained in a floor speech last week.

The funds helped purchase computers in 110 public libraries last year to assist students with the written part of the test. The money also funded grants in 35 high schools to buy equipment and materials for the courses.

"I know there's demand out there amongst different high schools," said Bob Dallas, the commission's vice chairman and the director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. "And if the money comes to us, I'd say let us go out and make sure every high school is aware of it and give them time to come up with a proposal."

Pickens County High School in north Georgia is one place that benefited from a grant. The county already pays most of the $200,000 bill to provide more than 130 students each semester with driver's education courses, saving parents the roughly $450 fee that private instructors charge. The school used a $90,000 state grant to buy five driving simulators.

The commission's leaders hope to expand the number of grants by submitting more than $9 million in requests to lawmakers.

"We created this foundation for how funding can be spent, we've shown there is a need based on $9.5 million requested by the schools and we're committed to moving forward," said Greg Dozier, the chairman of the commission and the head of the Georgia Department of Driver Services. Yet some of the bill's most ardent supporters question the commission's commitment.

Mr. Smith was irritated enough at the slow-moving bureaucracy to launch an aborted attempt to abolish the commission. He said he hasn't yet seen the commission's budget requests, and speculated that they are "intentionally failing to meet deadlines."

The commission hasn't held a monthly meeting since November.