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Veterinary leaders urge lawmakers to preserve rural loan‑forgiveness program, cite workforce impact
Summary
Veterinary and university leaders told the committee the Minnesota Rural Veterinary Loan Forgiveness Program has helped recruit and retain veterinarians in rural areas and urged restoration of eliminated transfers in A‑4.
Representatives of the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association, the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine and practitioners told the Senate Higher Education Committee that the rural veterinary loan‑forgiveness program has been successful at recruiting veterinarians to rural practice and asked lawmakers not to eliminate the program.
Trevor Ames of the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association said the program helped about 40 graduates with their student loans in the last six years and incentivized roughly 95 to remain in rural practice; he described 100% utilization of the funds available over that time. Chair of the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine Doctor Monse Torre‑Morey and others said losing the program would jeopardize food‑animal veterinary services, public health capacity and rural companion‑animal care. Torre‑Morey said students told faculty they were "frustrated and disappointed" at the prospect of losing the program and that many students’ willingness to return to rural communities depends on the loan assistance.
Why it matters: witnesses argued the program supports rural economies and disease surveillance and recommended expanding, not eliminating, the loan forgiveness assistance.
Committee action: no vote taken; witnesses asked the committee to preserve the funding and noted the program has been widely used.
