Hello, everyone! It is your Independent Women’s Network Content Coordinator, Frances Floresca, here. I am leaving IWN on August 31, and I will start...
Author: Frances Floresca
Reducing Licensing Barriers and Combating Inflation
Imagine that you are a stay-at-home mom who decides that she wants to start cutting the hair of friends and acquaintances, and even make money off of it. However, someone discovers that you are not licensed and reports you. Learning to cut hair can be expensive, and it can require thousands of hours and hundreds of dollars in fees to complete.
What if you are the wife of a service member? There are many licenses out there that require education longer than the family will be at the unit. While work has been done to get licenses from other states recognized, reform needs to happen so these spouses can continue to work even after being transferred elsewhere.
Licensing reform may not sound like as much of an exciting subject as fighting against critical race theory and gender ideology in schools, or fighting to protect women’s sports. However, millions of people have a professional certification or license, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic many states reduced licensing barriers temporarily or permanently. It truly affects so many people. This is truly a bipartisan issue, and it is one that does not get enough attention.
Throughout the pandemic, I fought for making a lot of occupational licensing rollbacks to become more permanent in many states for many workers, especially for healthcare professionals practicing telemedicine. Most of these were only temporary as long as a state was in a “declared emergency” or until certain states rolled back on them. While several states succeeded, others ended up doing a “rollback” on the “rollback.” This includes Pennsylvania, which had licensing waivers expire by June 30, 2022.
Now that the pandemic is over, it is time to discuss how reducing licensing barriers will not just help workers. It will help so many of us.
So How Can Reducing Licensing Barriers Help Reduce Inflation?
As of May 2022, consumer prices have increased like wildfire. We have seen both federal and state governments struggle to ease the burden of these rising costs. I had a friend who is a hairstylist who had to raise her prices due to the cost of living and rising prices of the products she uses.
What are some of the reasons for inflation? To name a few: Supply chain issues and worker shortages, irresponsible government spending, cost of travel. Here is a Finance Friday video of Patrice Onwuka discussing why these factors have caused inflation to rise. While the video is focused on Thanksgiving, it is still relevant to what we are facing as a nation today.
Several people and organizations have started to look at how occupational licensing can help reduce inflation. Tom Joyce, a political reporter for the New Boston Post stated:
If there were a greater supply of workers, it would put more money in the pockets of the public.
If there were more barbers, they would have to compete for business and lower their prices. Likewise, more cosmetologists would mean cheaper trips to the salon. And if more plumbers and electricians were competing for business, they’d have to charge reasonable prices. The same is true of many other skilled labor positions.
Not only would consumers save money, but workers would also benefit from increased wages and hold on to their hard earned money.
There are so many jobs that do not need occupational licenses, or states should require less hours and fees. People go into debt or waste time with learning requirements that are unrelated to their job. For example, in Utah, when veterinarians have to renew their licenses in 2024 and beyond, they will be required to take a diversity class. What on earth does diversity have to do with taking care of animals?
Why would children’s entertainers such as magicians need a license in the first place? They are magicians, and it is not like they are nurses who are trying to save your child’s life.
Why do three states and the District of Columbia require interior designers to pay thousands in fees with years of education and experience? Most other states do not require this.
Why does it take over a thousand hours in many states to become a barber, but only over 100 hours to become an emergency medical technician (EMT)? One would expect performing medical or public safety functions to have more training hours than cutting hair.
More occupational licenses have cost the United States millions of jobs along with a cost to consumers at around billions of dollars a year. It is clear that having more workers will end up reducing costs for consumers, but it will also end up easing barriers for workers. It is a win-win situation.
States have also revoked licenses of workers who cannot pay their student loans. Cost of living is already so expensive that taking away someone’s license to work will cause them to struggle even more. How can someone pay their loans if they cannot work? The government has been trying to find solutions to student debt, yet they take away many workers’ means of making money? The government can be absolutely unfair.
Another way to help workers combat inflation is by enabling more licensing reciprocity between states will save workers time and money to get a license in another state. It will also help fill labor shortages. In 2020, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would require state, territorial, or tribal governments to issue licenses to those who are in good standing and already hold a license for their area of discipline. Since then, more states have moved closer to universal occupational licensing, but a lot of work still needs to be done. This can especially be helpful for military families who are usually moving around every 2-3 years.
Cutting back on licensing can make life more affordable for everyone and even combat inflation. I wish it was an issue people would care more about as it does not only affect workers but also consumers.
I Recommend Checking Out the Following:
- Sign this petition: Fix Tennessee’s Anti-Woman Licensing Laws
- Policy Focus: Solutions To Occupational Licensing Challenges
- Watch Losing the License: Reforming Occupational Licensure:
Scripps National Spelling Bee: The Pinnacle of American Academic Excellence
As schools have been pushing for “woke” agendas, you may be surprised that there are still academic competitions out there that have stayed true to their purposes. One of these is the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which is happening in Washington, D.C. this week. While we have seen schools and other academic institutions attempt to lower standards and the level of difficulty of education, the National Spelling Bee has increased in difficulty over the years.
As of last year, the second round of each segment (preliminaries, semifinals, and finals) are now vocabulary rounds in which the speller has to select the correct multiple choice answer to a vocabulary question read by the pronouncer. From 2013 to 2019, there was a written test that included both spelling and vocabulary words. Starting in 2002, there was a written round with only spelling words.
Not only are there vocabulary questions in the Bee now, but the words have become increasingly difficult. All words are also now from the online version of Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, which began in 2017. Until recently, the Bee had omitted words that have alternate spellings, hyphens, and spaces in them. In the past, I have seen words used in higher rounds be used in the earlier rounds several years later.
One of the reasons that the Bee started to create new formats for the competition was because of co-champions in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019 (which had eight spellers win the Bee). Spellers had exhausted championship level words and even had tied scores when it came to the written exams.
People always say that receiving words are just the “luck of the draw,” but the reality is that so many words can be deciphered by understanding etymology (language of origin), combining forms/root woods, part of speech, and definitions. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule, especially when an origin is unknown, imitative, or one of the unusual rare origins such as and sometimes it comes down to spelling a word how it sounds.
Going beyond Bee logistics, I remember the nerves when I did spelling bees. The school bees were a breeze, but I certainly had my struggles at the regional bees (the level before nationals). While the first 12-14 rounds were simple as all words came from a study booklet called Spell It! – Tricks and Tips for Spelling Bee Success, the words in later rounds were off-list words which got increasingly difficult (I was a top speller, although). My first few years with spelling bees was under a different program due to lack of sponsorship in the Salt Lake area at the time, so I only had my shot with the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 7th and 8th grades. In 7th grade, I also won another statewide spelling bee (unrelated to Scripps) with all the Lutheran schools in Utah at that time (around 50-60 students from 4th-8th grades).
While I never made it to nationals, I had the opportunity to assist and coach spellers who have made it to that level (or were top spellers at their regional/state bees) throughout high school, and I even had friends who placed high at nationals even before I was involved. For me, helping others was better than competing as I saw students build knowledge of the English language, learn where our words come from, and even develop effective study habits (even outside of spelling).
Whenever I watch the National Spelling Bee, I can see how much these spellers love to show what they have learned and even use their abilities. Many spellers have different techniques on how to spell. Spellers finger write on their hands/arms, others pretend there is a keyboard, and others have sung the spelling of a word. Most of these spellers, including the champions have never had to hire coaches as most of their coaches were family members and close friends. The Bee is truly a family affair, and seeing them cheer (or spell along with their children) is always a highlight.
I pray that the National Spelling Bee never goes “woke.” It is truly one of the last academic institutions in this country that displays American excellence. Your ethnicity and gender at the Bee does not matter, and there is absolutely no affirmative action happening. Everyone has the same opportunity to win, and we have seen both boys and girls, virtually all races, different academic backgrounds, and 11 year olds and 14 year olds win the Bee. Many of the spellers also go on to have admirable and magnificent careers, including Dr. Nan Hayworth (competed in 1971) who is an ophthalmologist, former New York Congresswoman, and also involved with Independent Women’s Forum!
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is truly the pinnacle of American academic excellence. If you have time tonight you should definitely watch the Championship Finals of the Bee.
No, Conservatives Are Not Against Everything When Voting “Nay”
Student Debt is a Problem, but so is Canceling It
The discussion of student debt is back in the media, but the people have been talking about it for years. There are discussions among Democrats and President Joe Biden about canceling student debt. President Biden has already canceled around $17 billion in student loans, and even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has called for canceling all $1.7 trillion in loans, both private and federal. On paper, erasing student loans may seem like a good idea, but it will eventually do more harm to students and the economy. Inflation has been rising, and even tuition will continue to rise.
As someone who graduated from college debt free, it is not easy to do. Gratefully, most schools in Utah are affordable, but that is changing. I had scholarships, I worked jobs throughout college, and even had assistance from parents (which required them to work hard and put money into a fund). Not everyone had their parents help them, and they had to work even harder. I hear stories from friends who talk about their stories of paying off student loans and how it was worth the diligence and saving money years after graduating from college.
Canceling debt for others is a slap in the face to those who paid for a college education and even those who never went to college. My husband, for example, has no college degree and is currently serving in the Army. He has a job with competitive pay lined up for him after he leaves the Army. According to the National Student House Clearing Center, there were nearly 1 million fewer students in college in 2021 than in 2019. People are choosing other career paths, going to trade school, community colleges, or even working full-time.
A few years ago, I wrote an op-ed (with a co-worker) for the Washington Examiner about how “student borrowers, not taxpayers, should be on the hook for their own debt.” We cited several studies, including the Brookings Institution showing how much debt people owed, which has increased since the op-ed was published in December 2020.
Let us not forget that canceling student loans will not lower tuition rates. It will worsen them.
From the op-ed:
Additionally, loan forgiveness and providing more loans to current and future students will not lower tuition rates, which caused all this debt in the first place. A National Bureau of Economic Research study showed that between 1987 and 2010, there was a 106% increase in net tuition, and student aid was the underlying cause for most of those increases.
It was always simple to me, if you take out a loan, you pay it back. I think of credit cards the same way: In a sense, you are borrowing money, and then you pay it back. However, I am also open to private groups and donors to help pay off that debt.
Students loans are completely voluntary, and they should be paid back. There are even programs that provide complete forgiveness, including working at companies that pay off loans as part of recruitment for new employees. We should also ease tax burdens on individuals and get rid of federal student loans. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for the debt of students with unpaid loans.
