ASLA Joins New Coalition to Protect Professional Licensing
1/16/20
ASLA Joins New Coalition to Protect Professional Licensing
American Society of Landscape Architects and Others Unite as Public Put at Risk by Calls to Eliminate or Weaken Licensing
Washington DC – The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has joined the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) — a coalition of advanced professions focused on educating policymakers and the public about the importance of rigorous professional licensing standards.
ASLA will work with other ARPL members to ensure the voices and concerns of advanced professions are heard by lawmakers amid the growing debate around licensing. The coalition was formed last summer to advocate for the critical importance of maintaining licensing standards for highly complex, technical professions like landscape architecture that have a clear impact on public health, safety, and welfare.
“The practice of landscape architecture includes keeping the public safe from hazards, such as those brought on by security threats, natural disasters, and climate change. For the sake of public protection and to ensure practice competency, ASLA worked hard to ensure landscape architecture is a licensed profession throughout the country. Now those licensure laws are in jeopardy from overbroad deregulation proposals in state legislatures,” said Elizabeth Hebron, Director of State Government Affairs at ASLA.
“Becoming a member of ARPL and joining forces with so many other advanced professional organizations will help us amplify our licensure education and advocacy efforts as we face the challenges ahead,” Hebron added.
“With highly-complex, technical professions at risk of being swept up in broad calls to reduce licensing requirements for occupations and vocations, ARPL will enable landscape architects and their registration boards to educate lawmakers about the value of our rigorous education, examination and experience requirements and the need to preserve them,” said Veronica Meadows, Senior Director of Strategy for the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB).
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Background on ASLA
Founded in 1899, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is the professional association for landscape architects in the United States, representing more than 15,000 members. The Society’s mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship.
Background on ARPL
The Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) aims to educate policymakers and the public on the importance of high standards, rigorous education, and extensive experience within highly complex, technical professions that are relied upon to protect public health, safety, and welfare, and enhance public trust. They seek to offer best practices and solutions drawn from experience to serve as models that work for the public and members of a given profession.
The Alliance advocates for licensing practices within professions that deliver uniform qualifications, standards, safety, and consistency, while also providing individuals with a clear career path and fair opportunities to pursue and maintain that career.
ARPL Member organizations other than ASLA include: Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB); The American Institute of Architects (AIA); the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPAs); National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB); the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA); National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE); and the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
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LTE: Lawmakers must protect Ohio’s engineer’s license
Lawmakers must protect Ohio’s engineer’s license
By: David Martini
The Columbus Dispatch
As lawmakers in Columbus consider revising state workforce laws in 2020, they would do well to remember that professional licensing for advanced professions like engineers is rigorous for a reason. While unnecessary barriers to entry exist for some occupations in Ohio, policymakers should beware of broad, en bloc proposals like the one published by the Buckeye Institute last month that conflate “certification” with “professional licensing” for highly-complex, technical fields like engineering. Failure to make this distinction could have the unintended consequence of weakening Ohio’s professional engineers’ license.
Ohio engineers agree that some state agencies’ certification requirements for engineers could stand to be loosened or eliminated.
But as a licensed professional engineer for more than two decades and the president of the National Society of Professional Engineers representing 26,000 engineers, including more than 1,000 in Ohio, I am concerned that if Ohio’s professional engineer’s license is weakened, the public’s health, welfare, and safety would be placed in jeopardy. The public wants the professionals who design and build our airports, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure to continue to be required to meet rigorous standards of education, examination, and experience.
In public policy debates, distinctions matter. Thus, lawmakers should focus their efforts on problematic certification laws for engineers and protect the professional engineer’s license.
David Martini is a licensed Professional Engineer and President of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
See more: https://www.dispatch.com/opinion/20200116/letter-lawmakers-must-protect-ohio-engineers-license
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Kerry Cooley Bruggemann, Professional Engineer
Kerry Cooley Bruggemann, Professional Engineer, goes behind the scenes at the Minneapolis airport to discuss the role engineers play in designing electrical, fire protection, and HVAC systems that safeguard the public — and how professional licensing ensures high engineering standards.
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Short Explainer: Professional Licensing Boards
Professional licensing boards set and enforce standards for highly complex, technical professions that have a high impact on public safety and welfare. Learn more: responsiblelicensing.org.
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Carlos Barrera, CPA
Carlos Barrera, CPA, discusses various functions within public accounting, how CPAs protect the public from harm, and why removing the CPA designation would put the public at risk.
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Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Caution on Licensing
I am concerned that the desire to lower barriers for some occupations may inadvertently also lower standards for professions that carry high public impact. As a certified public accountant for 42 years and as the immediate past chair of the Arkansas Society of CPAs, I have learned that Arkansans depend on CPAs as trusted financial advisers to individuals, families, businesses and public institutions. The state and the nation rely on CPAs’ expertise to protect the integrity of our financial system. – Mike Carroll, CPA
Read the full LTE here: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/dec/09/letters-20191209/?opinion
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Op-ed: Professional licensing is rigorous for a reason
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
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Rigorous professional licensing protects Iowans
Iowans need professional engineers to be licensed at the highest level because we are responsible for designing facilities and systems such as roads, bridges, buildings, autonomous vehicles, and biotechnology. Because of this tremendous responsibility, an engineer’s license is rigorous for good reason. Iowans would be put at needless risk if the state professional engineers’ license is eliminated or weakened. – David Martini, President, National Society of Professional Engineers
Read the full LTE here: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/rigorous-professional-licensing-protects-iowans-20191113
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ASCE, NCEES, NSPE Launch New Coalition to Protect Professional Licensing
ASCE, NCEES and NSPE will collaborate with other ARPL members to inform lawmakers of the need to maintain standards for highly complex, technical professions like engineering that have a clear impact on public health, safety and welfare. The coalition was formed to ensure the voices and concerns of the advanced professions are heard by lawmakers amid the growing debate around licensing. “When civil engineers design and build critical infrastructure projects like roads, airports, bridges and dams, the public must have confidence in their safety and structural integrity,” said ASCE President Robin A. Kemper, P.E. “The best way to ensure the public’s confidence is to continue to require civil engineers to demonstrate rigorous education, examination and experience as part of their licensing. Recent state-by-state attempts to weaken professional licensing requirements pose a real danger to the public’s health, safety and welfare.”
Read the full article here: https://csengineermag.com/asce-ncees-nspe-launch-new-coalition-to-protect-professional-licensing/
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CLARB Helps Launch New Coalition to Protect Professional Licensing
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8/12/2019 CLARB Helps Launch New Coalition to Protect Professional Licensing Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards and Others Unite as Standards Put at Risk by Calls to Eliminate or Weaken Licensing
Washington, DC – The Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB) has helped found the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) – a new coalition of advanced professions focused on educating policymakers and the public about the importance of rigorous professional licensing standards. CLARB will work with other ARPL members to inform lawmakers of the need to maintain licensing standards for highly complex, technical professions like landscape architecture that have a clear impact on public health, safety, and welfare. The coalition was formed to ensure the voices and concerns of advanced professions are heard by lawmakers amid the growing debate around licensing. “Professional licensing for landscape architects is rigorous for good reason. Landscape architects are responsible for designing and planning the outdoor environment to enhance property values (including parks, streetscapes, and gardens); ensuring public accessibility related to transit and habitat; reducing impacts to property caused by flooding, sea-level rise, and fire through trained resilience planning; and creating spaces that enhance public health and well-being,” said Veronica Meadows, Senior Director of Strategy for CLARB. “It is vitally important lawmakers understand our profession plays an indispensable role in protecting public health, safety, and welfare. With advanced professions like ours at risk of being swept up in broad calls to reduce licensing requirements for occupations and vocations, ARPL will enable landscape architects and their registration boards to educate lawmakers about the value of our rigorous education, examination and experience requirements and the need to preserve them.” You can learn more about ARPL and the importance of professional licensing by visiting the group’s newly-launched website: http://www. ARPL members include the American Institute of Architects (AIA), American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB), the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). For ARPL media inquiries, please contact Joe Sangiorgio by email at jsangiorgio@craftdc.com or by phone at 1-202-550-2709 ### |
| The Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) promotes a responsible, balanced approach to professional licensing. We aim to educate policymakers and the public on the importance of high standards, rigorous education, and extensive experience within highly complex, technical professions that are relied upon to protect public safety and enhance public trust. For more information, visit www.responsiblelicensing.org |