While we understand Gov. DeSantis’ desire to lower barriers for Floridians entering occupations by eliminating unnecessary requirements, we ask Florida leaders to be mindful of potential unintended consequences for professions — and the professionals in them — that oversee systems vital to Floridians’ safety, health, and financial interests.
Engineers, surveyors, architects, landscape architects, and certified public accountants (CPAs) are professions that are responsible for everything from the physical integrity of buildings to the fiscal integrity of financial systems.
They design and build homes, roads, bridges, and stormwater systems; they ensure the probity of our state and national economies as well as large and small businesses. For such jobs, broad-brush proposals intended to relax licensing requirements can weaken the standards that allow us to live securely and freely and rely on trustworthy guidance when our lives require it — when, for instance, we decide to build a house or start a business.
To that end, any conversation around licensing reform would be well-served to acknowledge that for some professions, rigorous licensing is not only desirable, but appropriate and necessary.
Read the full op-ed on FloridaPolitics.com here: https://floridapolitics.com/archives/317366-john-johnson-skip-braziel-professional-licensing-is-rigorous-for-a-reason