Mass. Commission Asks Aid for Medical Schools

A special commission of the Massachusetts legislature yesterday recommended the establishment of a program of indirect state aid to private medical and dental schools in the six New England states.

Calling for the creation of a New England regional compact to provide increased educational opportunities in medicine and dentistry, the commission report emphasized that participating institutions must be prepared to increase enrollment by admitting more qualified students from the New England states.

According to the commission's proposals, a regional agency, called the New England Board of Higher Educations, would be set up to administer the program. The Board would be empowered to sign contracts with medical and dental schools throughout New England, providing that a total of 50 medical and 30 dental Students from Massachusetts alone be admitted each year.

About $2000

Each one of the participating schools would admit a portion of the 50 contract students in addition to its regular acceptances; Massachusetts, through the intermediary of the New England Board would then pay the educational institutions approximately $2000 a year few each student enrolled under the contract system. Other New England states would probably provide an equivalent number of contracts for their own residents.

The commission report draw a generally favorable reaction from George P. Berry, Dean of the Medical School, but the Dean expressed doubts about certain aspects of the program. "The plan is certainly much preferable to a state medical school in Massachusetts," Berry said. "That's not needed and would be very expensive."

Large Expansion

But the plan might prove difficult to implement if medical schools were required to take the contract students over and above their regular enrollments, Berry warned. "A large expansions of physical facilities would be required," he explained. The Harvard Medical School in particular might not be able to undertake such expansion, he said. "Some of the schools are not nearly as example as we are. We're doing as big a job as well as we can right, now."

The commission, headed by State Senator George J. Evans, chairman of the legislature's Education Commission, included a number of prominent, local doctors, among them David Harwitz, clinical assistant in medicine at the Medical School. The group also consulted with several area educators during its six-month study of the medical school problem.