New veterinary schools move forward in Arizona, New York

The AVMA has sent letters of reasonable assurance to the public University of Arizona and the private Long Island University giving provisional accreditation for veterinary school students to start in fall 2020. Plus, did you miss Texas Tech University officials breaking ground on another vet school?

Perhaps doing their part to ease what many see as a national veterinary associate shortage, two new veterinary schools-one public, one private-have taken a major step forward, and another has broken ground in the past few months. Here's a roundup of the latest news on new veterinary colleges in the U.S.

AVMA approves veterinary school in Arizona

In the southwest, the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine in Oro Valley, Arizona-four hours from Tucson-received a “letter of reasonable assurance” this month from the AVMA, opening the door for its first veterinary school students in fall 2020 to finish, with provisional accreditation, in 2023. Arizona's school is a three-year, not a four-year program at the public university, according to The Arizona Republic.

This university has been working for years to open up the state's second veterinary school; Midwestern opened a private one in 2014.

The university asked for state funding in 2013 and was turned down, then received a private grant in 2014.

The AVMA Council on Accreditation then conducted a site visit in 2016 and subsequently rejected proposals for the school later that year and again in 2017

AVMA approves veterinary school in Long Island

On the East Coast, Long Island University also received the AVMA's letter of reasonable assurance this month, opening the door for veterinary school students to start there in fall 2020 for a four-year program. Long Island's program will be one of only four veterinary programs in the Northeast, according to a press release.

Texas Tech vet school construction started

Administrators and officials broke ground in September on a promised veterinary school to “address the imperative need for rural and large-animal veterinarians” at Texas Tech University in Amarillo, according to a press release.

Texas Tech received state funding for the project in June after clashing publicly with officials at Texas A&M about the need for another Texas veterinary school.

That school is expected to open in fall 2021 with an initial class of roughly 60 students, according to the release.