I'd like to know what has precipitated the discussion leading towards requiring continuing education.  Has there been an increase in poor engineering, unethical acts, threats to public safety?  If not, we as an engineering community must ask ourselves why this is being imposed on us.  Absent these issues, this simply seems to me to be a discussion aimed to follow in the steps of other states because it simply sounds like a good idea or to drum up business for companies offering continuing education courses.

I certainly have nothing against condinuing education, having a Master's Degree myself.  However, given the current economic conditions, I believe that there are more prudent uses of the Commonwealth's resources than to institue and monitor this program.  For instance, Northern Virginia has serious issues related to transportation funding that need to be addressed.  Last I checked, we completed botched the chance to get Metro to Dulles Airport.

Another better use of resources would be to use the money that would be spent on this to recruit and retain better engineers in state and local positions.  There is quite a disparity between what an engineer can make in the public section versus the private sector and the engineering community needs to think seriously about that so that there are an adequate number of qualified and competent engineers reviewing and approving plans.