FCA Fulminates over Funding Veto

When Florida Governor Jeb Bush vetoed a number of pieces of legislation passed by the state's lawmakers this past spring, the state saved $290 million in funding. Among the lost funding was a small appropriation of $1 million to establish the first public chiropractic college in the U.S. at Florida State University in Tallahassee. This project, according to the Florida Chiropractic Association (FCA), was a "five-year effort of the FCA and chiropractic legislative leaders."

"Of the hundreds of appropriations that reached the governor's desk for his signature," said FCA President Dr. Tim Johnson, "few were as worthy of approval as the legislation creating the chiropractic college at Florida State University. I cannot help but be truly disheartened by Governor Bush's decision."

"I am at a loss to explain why such a worthwhile project would be subject to a gubernatorial veto," said Representative Frank Farkas,DC, (R-St. Petersburg). "There has been so much hard work poured into this project as we made every effort to insure this legislation met the governor's requirements. I certainly promise to work overtime convincing the governor of the value of a public chiropractic college."

Gov. Bush had no objection to a chiropractic college in Florida, but noted in his veto message that private funding, such as Palmer College's bid for a school in Port Orange, Flordia, was the way to go. Not everyone agreed with his assessment. "It makes no sense for the governor to veto this funding when he approved a million dollar appropriation last year to implement planning for the school," said Ed Williams,DC, the FCA 'CEO emeritus.' "Palmer's meddling clearly confused the issue," he added.

"The whole purpose of this project was to provide the same in-state, low-cost educational opportunity for chiropractic students as there is for every other major profession," explained Dr. Dennis Jones, former Florida House of Representatives Speaker Pro Tem, who authored the original legislation. He added: "A private institution cannot increase the number of minority candidates. It cannot attract anywhere near the same level of research dollars. It will not increase the acceptance and prestige of our profession."

The Florida Chiropractic Association (FCA) and Rep. Farkas are still committed to the project, and are clearly miffed by the efforts of Palmer College to bring a privately funded chiropractic college to Port Orange, Florida at the same time the FCA was working to bring a publically-funded chiropractic college to FSU.

"Shame on those who continue to sow division within the chiropractic profession," said Rep. Farkas. "Palmer spent in excess of $100,000 hiring lobbyists to undermine our goals," claimed Farkas, himself a Palmer graduate. "Unfortunately, this is just another instance in which a few colleagues from within our profession are our own worst enemy."

Palmer University Chancellor Michael Crawford said he respects the FCA and its leadership of chiropractic in Florida's chiropractic profession, but disagrees on this issue. "We simply do not want to place the curriculum under any medical hierarchy, jeopardizing the course of study that is offered by chiropractic faculty to chiropractic students." He added: "We are proud of trying to keep chiropractic in a chiropractic school. It is our uniqueness that is currently attracting record levels of public and private dollars for chiropractic research. We are not willing to let nonchiropractors begin to define what chiropractic is, what future chiropractors will learn and what care chiropractic patients will receive."

"The establishment of a private institution in Florida would normally be a welcome development," said FCA CEO Debbie Minor-Brown. "However, we take issue with Palmer's hiring of lobbyists to actively work against the FSU project."

"Isn't the legislative process one in which all voices are heard?" countered Chancellor Crawford. "I don't believe the Florida legislature is anyone's private domain, and we are proud of our actions there." He added: "It is not 'meddling' for Palmer to work through the governmental process, including using lobbyists, any more than it is for the FCA to use its lobbyists to push for a program that might steal control of chiropractic education away from the profession."

Seconding Mr. Crawford was Clay Tuttle,DC, director of alumni at Palmer: "It's disturbing that the FCA's news release puts so much emphasis on the prestige of involvement with Florida State University and so little on the outcome of chiropractic education. Are some so desperate for acceptance that we would risk a program that is counter to our own ideals, one that offers so many unknowns?"

In "From Palmer to Chiropractic Everywhere" (a paid letter to the profession written by Palmer President Guy Riekeman,DC, -see the back page [p. 52] in this issue), Palmer's position was further explained: "Rather than work for a compromise with an established college, the FCA leadership backed a college that existed only on paper-with a philosophy yet to be determined, facilities yet to be built, a curriculum yet to be developed, a program yet to be accredited, faculty and administrators yet to be hired, and money for it all yet to be appropriated."

"Our preference has always been and always will be to establish a public chiropractic college," explained FCA CEO Brown. "We were two years into this process before the Port Orange idea even surfaced. This is one of our profession's most important opportunities, so much so that our efforts have been supported by virtually every other private chiropractic college around the country. Chiropractic deserves the same opportunity for a publicly funded education enjoyed by every other health care discipline. That's why you'll see us redoubling to make sure this project gets off the ground."

Palmer states it has considered establishing a college in the Southeast for more than 20 years. When Palmer learned that FCA sought a tax-supported chiropractic program in Florida, Palmer sought to explore a partnership with FSU, as did other chiropractic colleges. While getting tax dollars to help students get a chiropractic education was appealing to Palmer, the real appeal was "creating a model for private-public partnerships that could be applied by other private chiropractic colleges in other states." Such a model was needed, Palmer reasoned, because the profession could not "afford to simply hand over carte blanche its all-important educational component to nonchiropractic institutions."

Clearly, the FCA is frustrated by Palmer's intervention, and believes Palmer derailed its chiropractic college and funding. Palmer, for its part, feels it has acted in the interest of chiropractic education and was justified in its actions. In matters of education, as in matters of practice, chiropractic remains a divided profession.