Proposition 1D would help UC with enrollment growth, building safety
improvements and expanded medical education programs
The University of California Board of Regents today (July 20) endorsed the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006, which would provide much needed funding for K-12 and higher education facility needs over the next two years.
If approved by California voters as Proposition 1D on the November 7 ballot, these general obligation bonds would provide a total of $10.4 billion. UC would receive $345 million per year for facilities programs and an additional $200 million over the two-year period to expand the University’s medical schools and enhance its telemedicine programs throughout the state.
“Voter support for Proposition 1D is critical to the University’s ability to accommodate the growing number of students, improve building safety and modernize obsolete facilities as the University works to fulfill its public mission of education and research in the coming years,” said Gerald L. Parsky, the regents’ chairman.
The bond measure would fund construction and renovation of UC facilities to address enrollment growth, seismic and life safety needs, and renewal of outdated infrastructure. The capital funds would also allow UC to continue building out its new campus in Merced, which is central to keeping our promise of educational access to the youth of the San Joaquin Valley and throughout California.
The medical-education portion of the funding will provide facilities and state-of-the-art equipment for increased enrollments in UC’s “PRograms in Medical Education” (PRIME), which are aimed at improving health care for currently underserved populations and communities in California.
For the past four decades, the state has provided funding for UC facilities and infrastructure needs through such bonds. California voters approved similar measures in 2002 and 2004 (Propositions 47 and 55), from which UC received approximately $345 million annually for four years. The 2004 bond funding included support for projects in the University’s 2005-06 capital program, and the proposed bonds would sustain this funding source at a similar level.
Assembly Bill 127, the legislation introduced by Assemblymember Fabian Núņez and Senator Don Perata to create the bond issues, also authorizes $7.3 billion for K-12 schools statewide as well as $1.5 billion for the California Community Colleges and $690 million for the 23-campus California State University system. The bill was signed by the Governor earlier this month.
For full text of Proposition 1D
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BACKGROUND ON PRIME:
The state has not expanded medical education in California in almost 30 years, despite rapid population growth and changes in health care delivery. California ranks 38th among the 46 states with medical schools in the number of medical-school graduates per 100,000 people. While the state currently produces approximately 1,400 physicians per year, 2,600 are needed to maintain the doctor-patient ratio.
Approximately 60% of the state's medical students are UC-trained. Although California’s population has grown by more than 10 million people since 1980, UC trains fewer medical students and about the same number of medical residents as it did in 1982.
And as the state's population becomes more and more diverse, increasing numbers of Californians lack access to quality health care, resulting in a growing disparity between well-served and underserved communities. California will have a doctor shortage of almost 16% by the next decade, exacerbating current health care disparities.
A 10-year plan begun in 2005 to increase UC medical school enrollments by 10%, the University’s “PRograms in Medical Education” (PRIME) will produce an additional 250-300 physician-leaders committed and trained to serve California’s underserved communities, including inner-city areas, rural communities, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley.
A PRIME program is already in its second year of operation at UC Irvine. PRIME programs are also being developed at other UC campuses with a medical school (Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco).
Launched in fall 2004 at Irvine, the UC Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community, or PRIME-LC, is the first program of its kind in the nation and designed to address the critical shortage of quality health care for California's growing population of underserved, at-risk patients. PRIME-LC combines medical-school training focused on Latino health issues with post-graduate work in environmental health, science and policy. Graduates will earn both a medical degree and master's degree. (www.ucihs.uci.edu/som/meded/primelc and video at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/everyday/primelc)
The initial PRIME-LC students represented the first increase in medical student enrollment at UC in a quarter-century.
At UC Davis, the PRIME-Rural effort includes a telemedicine program that reaches more than 65 sites across California, providing immediate access to specialty consultation which facilitates faster referrals when needed, but allows patients to stay in their hometown for care when it’s safe to do so. It also features t ele-pharmacy and tele-education components as well as partnerships to test new home-based technologies.
Report on UC Health Sciences Education: Workforce Needs and Enrollment Planning (April 2005)
Report on “California Physician Workforce: Supply and Demand through 2015” (Dec. 2004)
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