Opinion: State is rightly emphasizing experience and skills, not degrees

Elizabeth New explains how a new state policy removes unnecessary advanced degree requirements, supporting skills-based employment and broadening opportunities for capable workers.

Elizabeth New says workforces need people who can do the job, not people who merely collect the right parchment

Elizabeth New
Washington Policy Center

“It’s not often that we come before you asking you all to limit our agency’s ability to do something, but here we are,” said a director for Washington state’s Office of Financial Management (OFM), Sheri Sawyer. The agency is behind another smart step toward hiring people for what they can do, not just for the framed paper on the wall.

Elizabeth New (Hovde), Washington Policy Center

House Bill 2309, now signed into law, builds on previous common-sense reform removing unnecessary two- and four-year degree requirements from state jobs. This year’s policy closes another gap: State civil-service classifications may not require a postgraduate degree as the only way to prove someone is qualified for a role unless that degree is required by law. If the job can be done by someone with the right skills and experience, the state cannot and should not shut that person out because he or she lacks a master’s or other advanced degree.

People become qualified for a job in various ways, including on-the-job training and performance-based promotions, apprenticeships, internships, military service, vocational education and plain old experience. As Harvard Business School once put it, “Jobs do not require four-year degrees. Employers do.”

Work should always be built around the skills and abilities actually needed to do the work well, not degrees. Our new economy, the price of college and grade inflation also demand this kind of reform. When state government leans too hard on academic credentials that are not legally necessary, it screens out capable applicants. That hurts workers, taxpayers and agencies trying to fill positions with people who can deliver results. Research shows that when employers follow through on skills-based hiring, workers without degrees hired into newly opened roles saw higher pay on average, and employers saw better retention.

This policy change is practical, and it received unanimous, bipartisan support. Primary sponsor Rep. Mari Leavitt, D-Tacoma, has become a go-to lawmaker for workforce mobility and workforce needs, which makes sense for someone representing a district with a strong military presence.

During a hearing on the bill, Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, asked a good question that deserves revisiting. Why not just get rid of the plan OFM is required to produce? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to get rid of the plan and leave the agency with broad discretion? Maybe that’s the next step.

HB 2309 offered good policy: A postgraduate degree may be valuable in some roles, but where it is not required by law, it should not be a requirement that excludes qualified workers, including those with valuable institutional knowledge. Workforces need people who can do the job, not people who merely collect the right parchment.

Elizabeth New is the director of the Centers for Health Care and Worker Rights at the Washington Policy Center. She is a Clark County resident.

Under the Grok Lens

Analysis created with Grok

This independent analysis was created with Grok, an AI model from xAI. It is not written or edited by ClarkCountyToday.com and is provided to help readers evaluate the article’s sourcing and context.

Quick summary

In this opinion column, Washington Policy Center analyst Elizabeth New supports House Bill 2309, which was signed into law and bars state agencies from requiring a postgraduate degree as the sole qualification for civil service jobs unless a law specifically requires it. She argues the change supports skills-based hiring by opening more public-sector roles to qualified applicants with practical experience, military service, apprenticeships, or other nontraditional backgrounds.

What Grok notices

Explains the practical effect of the law: agencies can no longer rely on a postgraduate degree as the only pathway to qualify for affected civil service roles unless that credential is legally required.
Frames the policy as part of a broader skills-based hiring movement, arguing that experience, military service, apprenticeships, and demonstrated ability can signal job readiness as effectively as advanced academic credentials in many roles.
Notes the article’s emphasis on unanimous bipartisan support, suggesting the reform had unusually broad agreement across the political spectrum.
Provides broader context through references to outside research and earlier reforms, while also mentioning commentary that some policymakers want to go further in reducing hiring or regulatory barriers.
Points readers toward the bill text and future implementation guidance, since the effects will depend on how agencies revise classifications, job postings, and evaluation criteria.

Questions worth asking

How might removing unnecessary postgraduate degree requirements change recruitment pools, vacancy rates, and retention in Washington state government?
Could skills-based hiring broaden opportunity for candidates from nontraditional backgrounds, and how might agencies measure that impact fairly?
What challenges will agencies face when shifting from degree-screening to competency-based evaluation, especially for roles with technical or specialized responsibilities?
How have similar reforms worked in other states or in the federal government, and what lessons might Washington draw from those experiences?
What metrics—such as time-to-hire, applicant volume, retention, performance, or diversity of experience—would best show whether the policy is succeeding?