It has been almost a year since a federal lawsuit challenging Louisiana's state licensing exam was dismissed, but the state's florists still are weighing the effect it has on their industry.

Louisiana requires every location selling flowers to have one designer who has passed the exam, which consists of a written test and practical test judged by other state florists. It is the only state in America with a requirement of this kind.

"This licensing law has been in effect since the '30s," says Mark LeBlanc, assistant director of horticulture and quarantine programs for Louisiana. "From our standpoint, it's enacted by statute. We are kind of charged with enforcing that statute."

The exam came under fire in December 2003, when the Institute for Justice filed a lawsuit challenging the practice on behalf of three Louisiana florists who, despite years of experience, failed several times to pass the test. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, two of the three florists left the state, and the case was dismissed.

Clark Neily, senior attorney for the Institute of Justice, says that they plan on filing a suit again in the near future. "[The exam] is unconstitutional, and it has got to go."

A key point of the debate always has been the difficulty of the exam, Neily says. While more florists are passing the exam -- 63 percent in 2006 compared to 49 percent in 2003 -- that point still is contentious.

"When I took it [about five years ago], it was very, very hard," says Buff Harvey of A Dream Come True in West Monroe.

Kathleen Dowdy of America's Finest Flowers and More in De Ridder, who passed the exam on her first try, agrees: "It was harder than I expected."

Still, not all florists, including Dowdy, think the high degree of difficulty is a bad thing.

 "I think that it's good that it is hard," she says. "This way you have to know what you are doing."

 "I like the higher standard it raises us to," adds Angela Adams of Blooming Orchid Florist in Houma.

Other critics have spoken out against the exam scoring process, which puts established florists in positions to judge their peers -- and, potentially, their competition.

"I don't think it should be judged by other florists," says Caroline Gaar of Billie's Flower Shop in Winnfield.

LeBlanc, however, points out that "the practical part of our exam is anonymous."

"The florists judging it have no idea who they are judging," he says. "I have never felt like someone was trying to keep someone else from entering the business."

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 

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