Officials from all over the state of Texas
gathered on Wednesday, March 6, to facilitate the earliest stages of bringing
newfound levels of health care and education to the Rio Grande Valley.
“We have worked a lifetime to bring
[this bill] to the table,” said State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville,
referring to a bill, now granted early approval by the Texas House of
Representatives, that would allow the construction of a medical school affiliated
with the University of Texas system in the Rio Grande Valley, a desperately
needed addition to an area with an alarming lack of health care and education
in respect to the rest of Texas, according to members of the Senate Higher
Education Committee.
According to the Texas Medical
Association and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, in 2010 the
average number of physicians per 100,000 persons (a statistical standard) in
the Rio Grande Valley was 107, compared to a statewide average of 192 and a
national average of 240.
According to Lucio, students from
the Valley traditionally left to attend other medical schools and did not
usually return to serve their own deprived homes. “It has been estimated that
75 to 80 percent of medical students from this new medical school will remain
in the Valley,” said Lucio. According to members of the committee, this influx
of residents would in time raise the number of accredited physicians serving
the people of the Rio Grande Valley and also help balance the demographic skew
of physicians toward a professional population more inclusive of minorities.
“We have a doctor shortage, and so
we really believe that we’re investing in our future by investing in residency
programs,” said Israel Rocha, an administrator at the Doctors Hospital at
Renaissance in Edinburg, on investment by a coalition of Valley hospitals into
programs to incorporate residents into their systems and the transformation of
at least one area hospital into an accredited teaching facility.
“[The shortage] draws the state
down, it hurts us, and it doesn’t let us go the next step,” said Robert Nelsen,
the president of the University of Texas Pan American. “The magic in the Valley
is the people, and we have a chance to be able to make a difference in their
lives.”
“I think the addition of a medical
school will allow students to have a better opportunity to fulfill their goals
and hopefully with more health professionals, the overall health care industry
in the Valley will improve,” said Lazaro Hernandez, a radio-television-film
sophomore from Brownsville attending the University of Texas at Austin.
Senate Bill 24 would also create a
new and expanded university in the Rio Grande Valley, a built-up and better
financed combination of the existing University of Texas Pan American and
University of Texas at Brownsville, in Edinburg and Brownsville respectively.
“Access to higher education is
important, [access] to education period,” said Lucio on the matter of the new
and combined university. This opinion is shared by leaders in the Valley and by
those of state school systems like the University of Texas.
“All 15 presidents [of the
University of Texas system] were united in saying that we needed to plant a
larger flag in South Texas,” said Francisco Cigarroa, the chancellor of the UT
system.
The effects of greater educational
opportunities go beyond undergraduates’ learning, positively affecting the
region as a whole. “This is good for Texas, good for job creation and it’s good
for improving the economic base of the Valley and therefore Texas,” concluded
Cigarroa.
“People all over the nation now know
us also because of our prowess in chess. If these kids can do chess, they can
do physics. They can do medical school. They can do law school. They can be the
new entrepreneurs of our businesses,” concurred Juliet Garcia, president of
UT-Brownsville.
While even proponents of the bill
debate the exact degree to which education, health care and entrepreneurial
opportunities will increase with the creation of a newly expanded university
and new medical school, the majority of Rio Grande Valley leaders agree on its
importance.
“It’s about providing health care
for [the people]. It’s about not dragging our state down,” said Nelsen.
“This bill is about doing the right thing. If
we don’t get it right in South Texas, we don’t get it right in this nation and
we especially don’t get it right in this state.”
