Only a few categories of people get to claim professional development expenses as a tax deduction [0], mostly self-employed.

> If you qualify for itemized deductions, which you do if you have a mortgage

If you have a sufficiently large and expensive mortgage and/or are filing as an individual. Our interest almost got us over the standard deduction in the first year, but every year since then the standard deduction threshold just gets further and further away.

[0] https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc513