“You know, I always wanted to pretend to be an architect,” George Costanza told Jerry Seinfeld.
But you wouldn’t want Art Vandelay as your architect. Why? Because Vandelay — the sometimes alter ego of Seinfeld’s George Costanza — is not really an architect.
That’s where licensing comes into play: establishing, verifying, and enforcing the necessary minimum qualifications to practice critical professions such as engineering and architecture competently and safely.
Unfortunately, efforts are underway to undermine licensing and erode the public protection it provides. In state after state — Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, just to name a few — there is an orchestrated campaign to weaken professional standards by slipping legislation through during the COVID-19 crisis so a distracted public won’t see it happening, or by invoking the crisis as a justification.
Read the full op-ed in The Washington Examiner: