From shortage to surplus: the hazards of uncontrolled academic growth.

Take yourself back in time just 10 short years to an imaginary meeting at an imaginary place. You have been appointed to a special AACP blue-ribbon panel to study what the academy can do to address the pharmacist shortage. It's the year 2000. We've just gone all PharmD. There are about 80 schools of pharmacy in the country, and roughly 7,000 graduates enter the workforce every year—but it's not enough. One outspoken member of the panel proposes that the academy add about 50 new schools of pharmacy over the next 10 to 15 years. As you almost fall off your chair, another member chimes in to suggest that 50 new schools will not be sufficient and that most of the current programs should either increase enrollment or establish new satellite campuses. Would you have thought they were out of their minds, or at least been a bit dumbfounded by the overly aggressive nature of their proposals? Is it reasonable to assume that if 80 schools are not quite meeting the demand, we must need 130?