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Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - February 16, 2001
Castro Offers Free Medical Training for Low-Income, Minority Americans
By KATHERINE S. MANGAN
Fidel Castro has offered six years of free medical education and
training in Cuba to hundreds of low-income minority students from the
United States. The offer was welcomed by members of the Congressional
Black Caucus who helped arrange the deal, but is being greeted more
skeptically by some American medical educators.
The Cuban leader extended the invitation after a meeting last year
with members of the legislative caucus. He said that if the lawmakers
could recruit some students, he'd provide their education for free.
Caucus members decided last month to move ahead with the plan.
"This appears to be an excellent opportunity to improve health care
in our Congressional districts, as well as a chance to fulfill a
life's dream for students who couldn't otherwise afford it," said
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York. Members of minority
groups are underrepresented in American medical schools and in the
medical profession.
Rep. José E. Serrano, also a Democrat of New York, said his district
office in the Bronx was contacting high-school counselors to identify
potential recruits.
Students, who must be high-school graduates under the age of 26,
would have to agree to return to their communities to practice
medicine. In addition to medical education and training, they would
receive free meals, housing, and textbooks in Cuba.
The program would be administered by the Black Caucus, but would be
open to students from other minority groups, as well. Some students
could be registered this spring, but it may take longer to satisfy
skeptics that the program is worth pursuing.
American Medical Association officials have raised concerns about the
quality of education and training the students would receive, and
whether they would have a tougher time getting licensed when they
returned to the United States, where they would be held to the same
rigorous standards as domestically trained physicians.
Only 48 percent of the graduates of foreign medical schools passed
the final stage of their licensing examinations in 1999, compared
with 92 percent of those who graduated from schools in the United
States or Canada, according to the National Board of Medical
Examiners.
A spokesman for Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida,
dismissed the Cuban offer as "a propaganda ploy" from a nation that
has been under a U.S. trade embargo for four decades.
Fernando Garcia Bielsa, a spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section,
which represents Cuban diplomats in Washington, countered that the
offer was merely "a goodwill gesture" from a country that has too
many physicians and regularly sends medical assistance to
impoverished areas of the world.
"Ours is a poor country without a lot of resources, but this is one
way we can help other people," he said.
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