ISSUE: START-UP OPERATING FUNDS – ECU SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY
REQUIRED OUTCOME: The new School of Dentistry at ECU must have $6 million of recurring operating funds in FY 2010 and an additional $8 million of recurring operating funds in FY 2011 in order to open the school and accept students in the Fall of 2011.
OUR CHALLENGE: The new dental school’s primary mission is to prepare the next generation of dentists to serve in the rural and other dentally underserved areas of North Carolina. To accomplish that mission, the new dental school will:
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Recruit students from rural and underserved communities;
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Provide them an innovative curriculum that gives them special knowledge and experience needed to deliver care in underserved communities;
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Create clinical service learning centers to both educate the dental students and deliver much needed dental services in rural communities across North Carolina;
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Employ about 67 faculty + 100 staff members in Greenville and in rural communities across North Carolina;
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Purchase services and supplies needed to operate our dental clinics from North Carolina companies.
FACING THE FACTS: Virtually all existing state programs have grown in size and complexity since they first started. Thus decreasing their budget is unlikely to shut them down. Since the ECU dental school is a start-up program rather than an existing program that has expanded over the years, cuts in initial operating funds cannot be absorbed.
Without these operating funds we will be unable to hire the faculty needed to create the curriculum and obtain initial accreditation. The employees needed to support the faculty and run the dental clinics cannot be hired.
THE BOTTOM LINE: In spite of being one of the most populated yet rural states, North Carolina ranks 47th in the US in dentists per capita. The diversity of NC dentists is also low. 32 out of 100 NC counties have 2 or fewer dentists per 10,000 people. Dental disease (pain) is the leading cause of kids missing school. Dental disease is the most common health problem in the U.S. North Carolina must have the new ECU dental school up and running as soon as possible to fix these problems and serve the unmet dental needs of our State.
Without required operating funds, it will not happen.
