"Professionalizing" a job means using credential requirements to drive out some workers to raise wages for the remaining ones. Pushing people out of these jobs isn't a bug. It's the whole point.
I updated the piece to clarify that the cited reason was professionalizing the field. I feel like that’s such a weird word. How would someone explain that word without using the word professional? It feels like a discriminatory barrier.
Sometimes, quality actually suffers from the education requirements. When I was involved in running a group of Montessori schools we had to de-train our assistant teachers who had completed state-mandated early education credits in California. Much of what they learned ran 100% counter the Montessori philosophy of our schools. One-size-fits-all teacher training isn’t good if you want parents to have choices!
This feels like another instance of “well this intervention was good for me so it must be good for everyone.” It seems to pop up around higher ed more often because so often “more school” is something you’re not allowed to push back on when it doesn’t make sense.
True! Here, I’m surprised they went for the university degree route rather than an apprentice or a certificate model instead. Two years of college feels like a heavy structure here.
I call it "Education Maximalism" as a philosophy. The idea that formal education of any kind is always a public good no matter what. This policy was a good handout for the colleges, as now more public money and students are flowing to them as the gatekeepers of employment.
I’m doing a deep dive on daycare and hadn’t figured out yet what it did to the costs. But it did increase costs, by more than the subsidy that DC gov tried to provide.
"Professionalizing" a job means using credential requirements to drive out some workers to raise wages for the remaining ones. Pushing people out of these jobs isn't a bug. It's the whole point.
I updated the piece to clarify that the cited reason was professionalizing the field. I feel like that’s such a weird word. How would someone explain that word without using the word professional? It feels like a discriminatory barrier.
Sometimes, quality actually suffers from the education requirements. When I was involved in running a group of Montessori schools we had to de-train our assistant teachers who had completed state-mandated early education credits in California. Much of what they learned ran 100% counter the Montessori philosophy of our schools. One-size-fits-all teacher training isn’t good if you want parents to have choices!
This is such a great point! I’m going to chat with someone who set up a Montessori school and I expect this kind of issue will come up! :)
This feels like another instance of “well this intervention was good for me so it must be good for everyone.” It seems to pop up around higher ed more often because so often “more school” is something you’re not allowed to push back on when it doesn’t make sense.
True! Here, I’m surprised they went for the university degree route rather than an apprentice or a certificate model instead. Two years of college feels like a heavy structure here.
I call it "Education Maximalism" as a philosophy. The idea that formal education of any kind is always a public good no matter what. This policy was a good handout for the colleges, as now more public money and students are flowing to them as the gatekeepers of employment.
You didn’t say, but I assume this also raised the cost of childcare, which is the absolute last thing parents need.
I’m doing a deep dive on daycare and hadn’t figured out yet what it did to the costs. But it did increase costs, by more than the subsidy that DC gov tried to provide.
This also doesn’t fit with the free market ethos that WaPo is supposed to be championing these days.
Credentials are like jargon: it feels good when you have it, but feels pointlessly obstructionist when you don't.