This Letter to the Editor appeared in The Columbus Dispatch.

Charles Penzone was absolutely right in his April 8 op-ed “Bills would get cosmetologists into workforce.”

In Ohio, an EMT who makes life and death decisions receives less training than a cosmetologist in whose hands you place your hair. This is ridiculous and illustrates why Ohio needs to expand opportunities for women and minorities and remove barriers to employment.

Becoming a cosmetologist gives women and minorities — who compose the overwhelming majority of those in the industry — control over their own lives. That is why opposition to removing barriers for these people is so misguided.

It is shocking that opponents of reform, mostly for-profit schools, want to stop young people from getting hired more quickly while heaping mounds of debt on their shoulders and crushing their opportunities.

Policies harming the career opportunities for women and minorities in Ohio need to end. Helping cosmetologists is a good place to start. But it is only a start. There is much more to be done to expand the opportunities for success in Ohio and remove barriers to employment.

Quinn R. Beeson
The Buckeye Institute
Columbus