A knee jerk reaction to a very nuanced issue is exactly what we are about to see. The idea that you can’t hire controllers for a specific airport is stupid. The idea that a controller needs to be checked out on all sectors and stations is stupid and leads to the 4 yrs it takes to be fully qualified with a high wash out rate. You can train people to do one sector and do it well in a lot less time especially if they aren’t uprooting a family to move 3000 miles away in a lottery system. Hiring people that have zero aviation knowledge because of quotas or the idea that this is a jobs program HAS lead us to a large washout rate in Oklahoma.

The controller union and the faa has built this bureaucratic monstrosity that has slowly made it impossible to put butts in seats. The pendulum is about to swing the other way and they either figure it out or politicians are going to make a much bigger mess by sweeping, knee jerk mandates.