Critics’ attack on COE is a solution in search of a problem
November 3, 2014
A look at the facts reveals a different picture of veterinary school accreditation than what’s being presented.
Since 1981 the AVMA’s Council on Education (COE) has approved a total of three new veterinary colleges in the United States. That’s right: three new veterinary schools in 33 years, for an average of one new school every 11 years. Only 27 of America’s 50 states have a veterinary college, barely more than half. This is hardly a flood of new schools, yet that’s not the impression one gathers from the small band of critics challenging the COE and calling on the U.S. Department of Education to create a new agency to oversee veterinary education in the United States.