Should the University of California Invest in Nurses or Lawyers…. Hmmmm!! Updated Aug 07

Dan Walters, a columnist with the Sacramento Bee has a reputation for calling government on the carpet for its wasteful spending and misdirected priorities. California corners the market on government waste and misdirected priorities and the University of California tops the list within California government. Their mis-management of public money is infamous. Just a few examples, here, here, and here.

Walters comments here on the recent decision of the University of California at Irvine to open a new law school despite a recommendation by the California Post secondary Education Commission’s not to citing an ample supply of lawyers in California, approximately 200,000. Roughly the same number as practicing Registered Nurses in the State. The full report of the Commission can be viewed here. Walters suggests Nursing education would be a better use of public resources.

It's another illustration of the fundamental dysfunctionality of California's government, its chronic inability to relate to real-world issues and prioritize its limited resources. UC's regents and administrators want to establish a new law school at Irvine because it would, in their view, enhance the school's prestige and, by extension, their own, not to meet any true educational or societal need…….

The Legislature's budget analyst, Elizabeth Hill, issued a report on the state's looming shortage of nurses in May, noting that the University of California, in a study by its San Francisco medical school, forecast a demand for registered nurses in 2014 that's 40,000 higher than the current forecast of supply, given retirement and other factors.

Hill recommended several steps, including supplemental funding to expand nursing education programs and removal of artificial barriers to expansion. The issuance of her report was virtually simultaneous with another event -- a vote by UC regents to authorize UC Irvine to hire a founding dean for its proposed law school at an annual salary of $233,200 to $364,300. It was the regents' figurative thumb of the nose to CPEC and its position

Some would argue the University is not tasked with “vocational education” which is normally handled by the States Community College System. Without even addressing the Vocation vs Profession argument the Nursing shortage in California is closely related to the number of Nursing programs available to students which is closely related to the number of qualified advanced degree Nurses to teach those students. Would it not be a better use of taxpayer money for the UC system to try to address the real issues facing the public rather than producing a surplus of Attorneys and building their Ivory Towers.

I cant wait for the sequel. The inevitable audit of how UC spent its millions of Stem Cell monies.

UPDATE August 07: UC Davis just announced the start-up of a new Nursing Program. Could I be wrong about UC liking lawyers more than Nurses. Nahhhh. They got a 100 million dontation to get it started. Regardless of the motives I'm glad to see more training in the pipeline.