That situation is pretty distinguishable from what happened in the article. A law degree's benefits mostly fall on Kim, it's not specific training for her job,

That situation is pretty distinguishable from what happened in the article. A law degree's benefits mostly fall on Kim, it's not specific training for her job, it's a legal requirement for an attorney role, and it is fully usable in other attorney jobs. Most importantly, it's a truly optional deal to get Kim a promotion--not a requirement to keep the job you were already hired for. And most people pay for the degree themselves. That's not the same as a company specific trainings for people who are already licensed for the job. There is definitely some sort of gray area between education and on-the-job training, but Kim's case isn't in that area IMO.