Americans owe more than $1.8 trillion in student loan debt, and the moratorium on loan payments will expire in February.
While conservatives generally don’t support forgiving all student loan debt like progressives do, student debt and the high cost of college are problems nonetheless. The government and businesses could make this less of an issue for future generations, however, if they combat the problem of credentialism.
Many jobs in 2021 require applicants to have certain academic degrees. Sometimes it makes sense. A surgeon, for example, should have to show some level of competence before operating on a patient. However, many jobs that shouldn’t require a degree still require one.
One of the most egregious examples of this is childcare workers in Washington, D.C. The city government requires that childcare workers have an associate’s degree in early childhood education or childhood studies or an associate’s degree that includes 24 semester credit hours on those topics. Apparently, that piece of paper is more valuable than experience taking care of children as a parent, sibling, or babysitter or working as a childcare provider in another part of the country with less stringent requirements.
Meanwhile, in Florida, the government requires people to have a bachelor’s degree to give out professional dieting advice. Otherwise, they can’t be a registered dietitian. If someone knows a lot about the topic, there is a market for their advice to make people healthier, and if they’re not hurting people, why should the government stop them from earning a living?
Thankfully, Tennessee eliminated its high school degree requirement to become a licensed barber last year because mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell has nothing to do with one’s ability to cut hair. States requiring 1,000 hours of schooling for barbers are ridiculous as well.
Meanwhile, many school districts require college degrees for substitute teachers. This includes school districts such as Duxbury, Massachusetts; Pawtucket, Rhode Island; and Hingham, Massachusetts, among others. Sometimes, all a middle school or high school substitute teacher does is take attendance, read off assignments from a piece of paper, or play a movie and babysit the students. There’s a nationwide shortage of substitute teachers, so districts having more of them available would be a positive development.
When it comes to jobs within the federal government, credentialism is a problem that President Donald Trump’s administration tried to start fixing. In June 2020, the administration ordered federal departments to prioritize skills rather than degrees in the hiring process.
It’s great that the federal government wants to address the problem, but state and local governments should follow suit — as should the private sector.
Getting rid of these unnecessary degree requirements would expand the labor pool amid a labor shortage and increase economic mobility for working people. Both would be highly beneficial to the country.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
