Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Senator Shapleigh signing a beam for the El Paso medical school building

AUSTIN - State leaders and El Paso lawmakers have told the El Paso Times that more than $40 million for the El Paso medical school will be in the state's base budget next year.

“It's the greatest jump-start Christmas present El Paso could have received at this time,” state Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso, told EPT reporters Brandi Grissom and Darren Meritz.

Rich Parsons, press secretary to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, told the paper that by putting the funding in the base budget, Dewhurst was sending a “very, very strong signal that this is what the leadership wants to happen.”

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, has pushed for a Medical Center of the Americas in El Paso, anchored by a four-year medical school to provide essential health education and research in the least served health region of the United States, since 1996.

Shapleigh said Dewhurst’s championing of the medical school had helped ensure that a $43 million appropriation would be in the in the Senate base bill.

“With (Dewhurst's) help, the funding is in the base bill. That will help a lot in getting the funding passed," Shapleigh told the Times. “With the funding, Tech can then recruit the faculty they need to open on time.”

Both Chávez and state Rep. Inocente “Chente” Quintanilla, D-El Paso, said they had received a positive call about funding for the medical school on Friday from House Speaker Tom Craddick.

If the Legislature does approve the funding, Texas Tech University’s El Paso campus could move from a two-year facility to a full four-year medical school. The money would allow the hiring of 20 basic scientists and 100 support staff.

Accreditation for a four-year institution cannot happen without the recruitment of the faculty. The aim is to enroll the first four-year class of 40 students in 2009. The school’s start date has already been put back one year.

Securing sufficient funding to turn Texas Tech University’s El Paso campus from a two-year facility to a full four-year medical school has been the number one item on the El Paso legislative delegation’s agenda for years.

However, despite the unity of the delegation on the issue, securing the funding in Austin has been anything but easy.

The El Paso medical school was first authorized by the legislature in 2001. Legislators approved the medical school and money for facilities in 2003. Construction of two buildings is already complete.

The Senate approved a $38.5 million appropriation for the medical school during the 2005 legislative session but El Paso House members were unable to get the support of their chamber.

Craddick was blamed by some for holding up the appropriation in order to get El Paso lawmakers to vote for a key education reform bill. Craddick denied the claim.

In November 2005, Gov. Rick Perry told the Guardian that he had instructed the Legislative Budget Board to fund the medical school. Craddick, a member of the LBB, resisted, saying he was concerned about state costs associated with Hurricanes Katrina and a Texas Supreme Court ruling on school finance.

Funding for the medical school also became a key issue in Shapleigh’s recent general election campaign, with Republican challenger Dee Margo blaming the District 29 senator for the fact that state money had not been secured. Dewhurst, a Republican, came to Shapleigh’s defense at an El Paso Time editorial board meeting.

Shapleigh countered that Margo was using his Republican contacts to keep funding announcements about the medical school under wraps until after the election.

Now, the political squabbles appear to be over.

“We're excited that this is going to make a tremendous difference in El Paso and really all across the border,” Dr. José Manuel de la Rosa, vice dean of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, told the Times.