President Obama is concerned about the shortage of doctors, particularly primary care physicians. Clearly it's time to take bold action, as NYC did during the teacher shortage. Brilliant NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff wonders:
Suppose Colin Powell tires of giving $100,000-a-pop speeches and wants to teach high school social studies. Suppose Meryl Streep has a hankering to teach drama.
Suppose they want to be MDs. Why should they have to jump through hoops and go through all that bureaucratic nonsense? Why not let them get to work right away? They can begin working on folks like Kristoff, who think it requires no training or background to get in front of 34 kids at a time and teach them. Let's give folks like Mr. Kristoff precisely the sort of options he wants for our kids.
I'm pretty sure Meryl Streep could easily act the part of a doctor, though I'm not sure one way or the other about Colin Powell. In any case, I hope Dr. Streep and Dr. Powell work out for Nick Kristoff. Me, I'm sticking with my regular MD, the one who went to medical school and has a license. I don't want to be a doctor myself, but in the spirit of giving, if Mr. Kristoff needs a lawyer I'd be willing to take a whack at it. I have a suit the same color as Ben Matlock's, and that ought to be good enough for anyone.
Posts
