NJ VME Contract Program FY2007

The chair of the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Education Contract Program Advisory Committee , Dr. Sarah Ralston, DVM, PhD, DAVCN, wanted me to be aware of the following facts:



New Jersey Veterinary Medical Education Contract Program (NJVMECP) Information sheet for FY2007
Approval for $1,505,538.00 was requested for FY2007-2008. This amount is needed to maintain the program at its current level. Recipients of contract seats will be required to return to work for one year in NJ for each year that they occupy a NJVMECP seat. However in the Governor’s current proposal the Veterinary Medical Education Program was recommended for funding at $687,000, less than one half the amount necessary and the same reduced amount as last year. This continued reduction is not only putting the entire program in jeopardy but represents a breach of contract to the schools of veterinary medicine and current contract students.
*Established in 1971, this program compensates for the fact that there is no college of veterinary medicine in the state of New Jersey by "purchasing" seats (paying “capitation fees”) for NJ residents in existing colleges in other states (Univ. of Pa, Tufts, Cornell, Tuskegee, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Univ. of Illinois). These seats then are available only to New Jersey residents applying for admission (90 to 120/year). 744 New Jersey residents have occupied contract seats since the inception of the program, over 60% of which currently reside and work in NJ.
*The requested 2007-2008 budget is $1,505,538.00 to maintain the program at its current level (24 seats per year). In addition a clause has been added to the contracts requiring the students to return to New Jersey to practice for at least 4 years after completing their education.
*In 2006 DVM magazine listed NJ as having a projected 69% growth in available veterinary jobs from 2002-2012, placing us as #1 in the country with increased need for veterinarians. This includes positions not only for veterinary practitioners to take care of the millions of animals owned by NJ residents but also in the pharmaceutical industries, Departments of Human and Animal Health, regulatory agencies, animal control and wildlife agencies and colleges or universities that have animal research programs (even if they do not have Animal Science or Pre-Veterinary/Veterinary technician programs!).
*There are currently at least 1675 veterinarians working in NJ,
over 26% of which have had NJVMEC seats. There are over 600 veterinary hospitals alone in NJ, ranging in size from a single veterinarian to over 50 practitioners, serving communities where they have a practice load of at least 7,000 to well over 100,000 pet owning families. Add this to the equine practitioners who provide mobile service to the $710 million equine industry's 70,000 equine animals, health and regulatory officials, pharmaceutical company employees and research scientists and it becomes obvious that the impact of veterinarians in NJ is far reaching and of great economic importance.
*If the program is discontinued, New Jersey residents wanting a career in veterinary medicine will have less than a 1/30 chance of gaining admittance to an accredited college of veterinary medicine in North America.
* The Contract program is a significant factor in encouraging NJ residents, especially women and minorities, to enroll in New Jersey Universities to complete their undergraduate Pre-Veterinary requirements. For example, over the past 15 years Animal Science has grown to be one of the largest majors at Cook College (now the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Over 50% of the incoming Animal Science majors declare pre-veterinary medicine as their curricular focus, citing the availability of NJVMEP contract seats in making their decision to attend Cook instead of going out of state to establish residency elsewhere.
*Of the approximately 75-80 Cook College Animal Science students who applied to veterinary school from 2000-2006, 69 were accepted, 49 of them to contract schools. Forty-seven of those accepted were women and 17 were minorities.
*There are currently 96 New Jersey residents in contract seats. Twenty three will graduate this spring but hopefully an additional 24 added in the fall if the funding is restored. However, the decision to cut the requested funding in half for FY2006-2007 resulted in schools denying admission to qualified NJ residents and the fear that the whole program would be discontinued, making the contract schools reluctant to open their doors to new NJ residents in the future. The loss of funding for even the existing seats represents a breach of contract.
* It costs Colleges of Veterinary Medicine $95,000/year to educate a single veterinary student. Since 1971 the NJVMECP has spent a total of $36.95 million to educate 744 veterinarians versus the over $1.1 billion it cost to actually educate them. More than 60% of these veterinarians have returned to work in NJ. The cost of establishing a CVM de novo is at least $1.4 billion. It is obvious that this is an extremely cost effective and needed program.