By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice
Veterinarians are in extremely short supply in all four corners of Colorado.
The solution? The authors of House Bill 25-1131 say, ironically, a veterinarian shortage can be fixed through the graduation of more veterinarians.
“We are seeing a shortage of veterinarians all over rural Colorado, and the state, quite frankly,” Republican Sen. Byron Pelton said.
The bill was termed a free-market solution to the state’s growing veterinary shortage by Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson and Democrat Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, who ushered it through the Colorado House on a 65-0 vote of the lower chamber.
The bill was similarly advanced Monday out of the Senate’s Education Committee on a unanimous vote and is being fast-tracked through the upper chamber by adding it to consent agenda readings.
“This may be my favorite bill of the year,” said Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, an El Paso County Republican. “It adds several dozen words and strikes several dozen lines from the statute.”
Democrat Chair Chris Kolker called it Lundeen’s preference toward brevity, something many bill authors ignore from the Golden Dome to Washington, D.C.
The bill eliminates the cap on the number of students who may enroll in the Colorado State veterinary program and, as the bill’s fiscal note points out, removes other financial limitations on the veterinary medicine program.
Colorado State could have “increased revenues and expenditures to educate additional students who enroll” in the program, the bill’s fiscal note reads.
The online Colorado State program catalog notes about 142 students are admitted to the program annually, an identical admission total to Texas A&M’s program. Oklahoma State admits 106 students annually, an admission rate of 13.1%. Kansas State admits up to 119 students annually. In 2023, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Colorado State program second among the top veterinary schools.
Sue VandeWoude, the dean of the veterinary college at Colorado State, supports the measure.
“It will allow us to increase the size of our classes and graduate more veterinarians,” she said. “We’ll be able to increase students in the program based upon demand and qualifications.”
The existing 1970 statute limits enrollment, she points out.
Democrat Rep. Karen McCormick, who noted in the House hearing on the bill she is the only veterinarian in the lower chamber, calls the measure “exactly what we need to be doing.”
“We need more vets in Colorado,” said Democrat Sen. Cathy Kipp, who sponsored the bill with Pelton in the Senate.
The measure would take effect 90 days following adjournment of the 75th Legislature, which could put CSU on a timeline for an enrollment expansion by the fall semester.