Government wages a
stealth war against the private sector. They want to collect fees for doing
little or nothing. They oppose individual freedom and want to control all
educational pursuits. They act like a labor union that wants no competition.
Everything they do is overpriced and underperforming.
STATE: YOU NEED PERMIT, WHICH WE WON'T GIVE YOU, Couple's plan to teach project management foiled by regs,
by Bob Unruh, 7/24/18, WND.
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia says Jon McGlothian, a certified project management professional, needs a permit to teach management skills. Which it won’t give him. His wife, Tracy, an accomplished sewer, also needs a permit to teach sewing. Which she also can’t have.
McGlothian already contracts with a variety of companies and military units to prepare their workers for project-management certification tests. He simply wants to teach the same things at his vocational school.
In response, the Institute
for Justice filed a lawsuit on behalf of the couple with the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia. Named as defendants are W. Heywood Fralin, the
chief of the state council; his vice-chair, H. Eugene Lockhart; and other
officials for the state agency.
“This civil rights lawsuit
seeks to vindicate the right to teach job skills without first being required
to obtain government permission,” the complaint begins.
The agency demands the
couple obtain permits, which would require them to “pay thousands of
dollars in fees, fill out dozens of pages of paperwork, and get government
bureaucrats, who have no expertise in project management to approve their
curricula.”
The complaint states the
agency cannot “constitutionally” apply such requirements because “teaching
(including teaching job skills) is speech, and Virginia’s content-based
prohibition of plaintiffs’ project-management and sewing classes violates the
First Amendment.”
The institute said in its
report that in Virginia, “you can teach anyone anything – except how to earn an
honest living.”
“That’s the lesson Jon and
Tracy McGlothian learned when they tried to open a school to teach job skills to
adults in their Virginia Beach community,” it said. “Yet the State Council of
Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has made it virtually impossible for them
to do so legally.” While the state requires permits, the council “has refused
to grant [them] for more than two years.”
“What SCHEV is doing
violates the First Amendment,” said Paul Sherman, a senior attorney with IJ.
“Teaching is speech, and the government has no business telling Jon and Tracy
they’re not allowed to teach willing adults. Under the First Amendment, people
get to decide for themselves which speakers are worth learning from; the
government doesn’t get to decide that for them.”
Jon McGlothian, a former
Army Ranger, used his military and corporate experience as a foundation to
become a project manager, IJ explained.
Their company, The Mt.
Olivet Group, already is a Registered Education Provider
with the Project Management Institute and teaches project management for
private companies and federal government clients. Such managers are responsible for planning and executing projects, ensuring they are completed on time and on budget.
“But even though Jon is
permitted to teach for corporate and government clients, he has to prove to
SCHEV that TMOG is a qualified vocational school in order to teach the general
public, even though SCHEV knows nothing about project management,” the
institute said.
“There’s incredible demand
right now for certified project managers, particularly here in Virginia and
Washington, D.C.,” Jon McGlothian said. “Service members, in particular,
develop skills and experience that make the field of project management a great
option for a post-military career. I would love to help train people to fill
those jobs. The only thing standing in my way is SCHEV.”
Tracy is an MBA with a
successful sewing business and faces the same dilemma.
“What’s happening to Jon and
Tracy is part of a nationwide problem,” said Milad Emam, an attorney with IJ.
“Across the country, government bureaucrats are acting as if people who speak
for a living aren’t protected by the First Amendment. But that’s not right, and
the U.S. Supreme Court has said it’s not right. That’s why we’ve filed a
lawsuit on Jon and Tracy’s behalf to vindicate their First Amendment rights.”
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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