SB 13: What Job Requires a High School Education?

There was a time when a high school education from an Oregon public school meant something. That time has long since passed.

Graduation rates have been a big problem in Oregon. Sadly, the primary policy solution has been to lower standards. A high school education used to be a certification of literacy and numeracy. Now, an Oregon public school graduate can no longer be reasonably assumed to read or perform the arithmetic needed to build a stairwell in your home.

Society adapts. Eventually, these kids get jobs and thus an answer to that old question: “When am I going to use this?” The natural incentives to succeed in the workplace tend to overcome the inefficiency of our formal systems of state education.

Perhaps with this in mind, Senators Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer) and Suzanne Weber (R-Tillamook) have sponsored SB 13 which replaces “may” with “shall” in the following clause on occupational licensing in ORS 670.030:

A professional licensing board that regulates an occupational or professional service and that requires up to a high school diploma or equivalent for licensure, certification or other authorization to provide the occupational or professional service [may] shall consider an applicant’s relevant experience in lieu of the required education.

The statute’s existing option isn’t sufficiently used, so those boards need this nudge. I’m not a big fan of occupational licensing in general. Such barriers to employment are mostly just an opportunity to develop cartels within our economy. Therefore, SB 13’s modest deregulation is certainly welcome.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.