I purposely refrain from talking about politics on this blog, but something is happening in New York State (and other states in the US) that deserves your consideration. It concerns your right to learn and to use what you learn to benefit yourself and other people.
Regulating What You Can Learn
In April, regulators in New York State decided that yoga teacher training programs are “vocational training” programs, and are requiring these programs by force of law to register with the state or face a $50,000 fine. The licensing process takes 8+ months, and the state gets to decide what kind of education is “appropriate” for yoga teacher training. Current programs are being shut down via cease-and-desist letters from the state threatening legal action if the studio refuses to comply.
As I talked about in my post about Absence Blindness, what regulators fail to consider is all of the programs and all of the schools that simply will not open or be available because of this regulation. Many/most yoga studios rely on teacher training programs for the majority of their revenue – shut down the programs, and you shut down the studios, reducing availability of quality yoga instruction and eliminating the ability of yoga teachers to provide valuable instruction to willing students.
Yoga is centuries old, but now that it’s a $6BN industry, the government wants to get a cut, and it’s willing to destroy lives and livelihoods to do so. According to this memo by Ms. Carole W. Yates, the Director of the New York State Education Department Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision:
“If the student would expect to learn skills which may be used in an occupation at a later point, whether employed or self employed, then the training needs to be regulated by our bureau.”
This statement, my friends, is the most egregious and dangerous use of political power I’ve seen in quite some time. If you value your right to learn, it’s in your best interest to do what you can to fight this noxious idea in your own locale. If history has shown anything about political power, it’s that it tends to grow unless consistently and strongly kept in check.
Fight for your Right to Learn
This is not just about yoga – it’s about your right to learn marketable skills. By this definition, any source of practical knowledge that you can potentially use at any time in the future to improve your valuable skills and knowledge is subject to government regulation and approval. (Note: consistent enforcement of this regulation would require all publishers to comply as well – business / self-improvement books teach “skills which may be used in an occupation at a later point, whether employed or self employed.”)
I firmly believe that every individual should have the right to learn (1) whatever they want, (2) from whoever they want, (3) at a mutually agreed-upon price, and (4) apply that knowledge to the best of their ability to benefit themselves and others, without any interference from any governmental or regulatory body whatsoever.
What You Can Do Right Now
1. If you’re in the US, contact your Senators and Representatives about this issue. To educate yourself on the details, read this page, which is constantly being updated with new information as the situation progresses. Use this page to find your Senators or Representatives. Tell your congressional representatives to (1) speak to the Senators and Representatives from New York State about this issue; (2) actively reject all infringements on a person’s right to teach and learn in their own state.
2. Let your thoughts be heard. Write an e-mail or make a phone call to the NYS regulators below. Be courteous and polite (remember the Golden Trifecta: appreciation, courtesy, and respect), but be clear that this position is neither wise nor acceptable. People should always be able to learn from or teach whomever they agree to work with, without governmental or regulatory interference.
Carole W. Yates
Director (and author of the memo), Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision
518-474-3969
cyates at mail.nysed.govEdward G. Kramer
Supervising Investigator, Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision
212-643-4760
ekramer at mail.nysed.gov
3. Always remember that governmental power ultimately comes from one and only one source: physical compulsory force. Government provides many benefits for our society in the form of protection: police, military, and justice system. The governmental monopoly on the legitimate use of force is the best way to keep order in society, but it is open to abuse when that power is extended into domains in which its use is not legitimate.
In the case of this legislation, imagine a regulator walking into a yoga studio forcing compliance with this regulation at the point of a gun. It’s unnecessary and outrageous, and the only way to prevent this abuse of power is to take a moment stand up for your right to teach and learn.
(Captain America is a trademark of Marvel Comics.)
{ 8 comments }
Excellent use of the word, “egregious.” What a frustrating, greedy-seeming push by NY.
Thanks for this post, Josh. It is really an outrage. I can think of few markets that function as well as yoga instruction. It’s easy to assess the quality of instruction one receives, and prices are fairly low. Instructors are compensated largely in lifestyle advantages, which would evaporate if they have to deal with all sorts of licensing nonsense.
You might be going after the wrong target.
While I’ll never be surprised at the lengths legislators will go to get their hands in other people’s business (and pockets), this was probably spurred on by the Yoga establishment. Who is more likely to push for this legislation: overworked, underfunded politicians, or those who stand to profit from raising barriers to entry for competitors.
My guess is that Big Yoga is pushing this legislation — a Yoga trade group (or groups?), possibly some large Yoga-training chains, maybe even producers of yoga DVDs (who would gain sales if it became too expensive to get one-on-one training).
If you allow me to indulge in paranoia for a second, Big Pharma probably kicked in some funds too — who wants people getting relaxed and finding inner peace naturally when there’s a perfectly good prescription pill they could buy?
Still, you’re right that government should not enable this rent-seeking behaviour. So do write your representatives.
@st4rbux: I doubt that this was started by the “establishment.” Methinks that somebody had a bad enough experience to start them on the warpath… which has snowballed into this ridiculousness.
It seems to me that our society has allowed a number of flies in the ointment grow into matters of legislation. The long range implications of which are disconcerting at best.
(I ask as a student.) Please help me understand. I fail to see how this is horrible. I did comprehend the paragraph about Absent Blindness. I admit, that I have not yet read that book, so I could be ignorant of some facts.
I can think of other professions that are regulated by gov’t — CPA’s, financial advisors, public school teachers, real estate agents, lawyers, hair-dressers, builders, professional engineers, chiropractors. Pretty much anything that involves a consumer and a professional has some kind of occupational license associated with it.
These professions are loaded with businesses which thrive on teaching more teachers who “might” go out and open schools and teach more teachers, etc. (a questionable motivation to enter a business I think — thriving in an ecosystem where less than a tenth of your students will succeed as teachers opening a school?)
OK, so your post is about the yoga teachers needing an occupational license and if we put that restriction on them, there will be less of them and the consumer will not be served as well.
Unfortunately…. I think…. when you go down this road of picking and choosing who’s a teacher and who’s not, who gets an occupational license and who doesn’t, you get mired up in this mess trying to answer the question, “who is being served by this rule?”.
You say the state. The state says the consumer.
To that argument there is no clear side. And so I submit that this new law is simultaneously harmful and virtuous.
Help me understand where I am misguided.
Biohazard – thanks for your questions! I’ll do my best to clarify.
From a legal standpoint, it’s an issue of the validity of legal paternalism, which is currently in vogue in the US. The theory here is that the state, by requiring registration, is somehow protecting the prospective consumer by “looking out for their interests,” which typically does more harm than good when you consider second-order effects. Reminds me of an old Ronald Reagan quote: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
As an industry, yoga teacher training is largely self-policing. While there’s no restriction on who can open a studio (provided the studio is able to attract enough members), studios typically choose to require teachers to have at least a 100hr teacher training certification through the Yoga Alliance or related industry organization. (NYS was actually using the Yoga Alliance public registered membership list to send their cease-and-desist letters.)
The probable purchaser of yoga teacher instruction is an avid yoga student who (1) is interested in learning more about the practice, and (2) is interested in potentially becoming a teacher in the future, but wants to learn more before they take the leap. Kelsey (my wife) recently completed her teacher training certification training, and the vast majority of her classmates didn’t know if they wanted to actually be teachers – the primary benefit was deepening their practice and learning more about what’s involved, and being certified to teach was the final benefit. These benefits were strong enough for these students to warrant paying the ~$2000 course fee.
The simple fact is that an organization like the Yoga Alliance is far better at evaluating quality of teacher training programs than any government body will ever be. By requiring an 8+ month registration process, the state is doing a few things: (1) limiting availability of quality teacher training; (2) requiring time and monetary expenses the studio / teacher could put to better use elsewhere; (3) making it more difficult for yoga studios to stay open, since the bulk of the operating revenue comes from teacher training vs. $15-20 class fees. There’s no active monitoring on the part of the state after registration, so there are many costs to this action without many benefits – any fraudulent or harmful schools (registered or unregisterd) would still be handled through civil court system proceedings, which already exists.
Individual customers are in a much better position to judge the worth of a teacher training program than the state is, since they’ll always be closer to the situation. As I said before, people should always be able to learn from or teach whomever they agree to work with, without governmental or regulatory interference.
Hope this helps!
An update on the NY State yoga regulation was just published in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/nyregion/11yoga.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print
Worth a read if you’re following this topic.
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