Please Sir, Can I Have My Med School?
From the Riverside Press-Enterprise:
Only hours into the 2013-2014 session, a pair of new lawmakers from Riverside introduced a pair of virtually identical measures to annually appropriate $15 million to UC Riverside’s School of Medicine. The bills are the first of their kind so early in a legislative year. Their authors, state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, pledged to secure money for the medical school during their campaigns this year.
…University officials have tried since 2008 to secure ongoing state money for the school amid massive budget shortfalls. In 2011, officials postponed the school’s first freshman class because of the lack of state money, which at one point also jeopardized the medical school’s accreditation…
UC officials are scheduled to meet with aides to Gov. Jerry Brown early next week to talk about budget issues, including the medical school, said Patrick Lenz, the university system’s vice president for budgets…
Riverside-area lawmakers, at that time Republicans, and UC officials, though, have come up empty the past two years in their attempts to get additional state money for the school. Those efforts came amid a partisan fight over Republicans’ refusal to support Brown’s proposal to put higher taxes on the ballot…
Full story at http://www.pe.com/local-news/politics/jim-miller-headlines/20121206-legislature-bills-would-fund-ucr-medical-school.ece
When you’re in need of your meds, it’s so hard to wait: