Written by T. Logan Dayne
For decades, California has been one of the most stringent advocates of unnecessary licenses. In fact it is the most regulated state in the nation when it comes to occupational licenses, many of which are often arbitrary and provide negligible improvement to quality of service, and in some studies show that it reduces it. In fact many of the licensing programs, dictated by archaic bureaucratic red tape, exacerbate income inequality and make it difficult and discourage people from entering a particular practice, artificially increasing prices in certain areas and decreasing quality by limiting competition.
Much of this is so California can squeeze more fees and taxes from its citizens. However, the shortages of essential personnel only show how weak, short-sided, and unnecessary many of these requirements are, a fact Newsom is now beginning to realize amid a shortage of teachers.
Gov. Newsom has now made it easier for qualified teaching staff to be hired, an item possibly addressed even before the pandemic. A new executive order would relax delays in hiring for new substitute teachers and reinstate retired teachers who would otherwise be age-limited. School administrators were also given more flexibility in determining the hours of substitute teachers. It is predicted that this move will not be enough to help the teacher workforce. There are many other hoops for teachers to jump through and California licensing requirements greatly hinders qualified teachers from being hired readily from out of state. These and a myriad of other regulations in California will greatly hurt it’s recovery as the rest of the nation begins to more readily open up and fill gaps in it’s workforce.
If Californians wish to see an increase like those in other states, Newsom will need to start lowering the requirement, fees, and licensing in many other sectors or California will continue to rank near last in terms of economic freedom.
Photo Cred: Justin Sullivan/ Getty Images
