We’ve batted around degrees, curricula, and
recruitment for the last couple years without
resolve. For the most part we’ve done a great job
criticizing but all the education experts in
podiatry have shied away from the most important
crisis on the doorstep. Where are the students
going to find the money to earn one of the gold
Doctor of Podiatric Medicine diplomas?
There is a solution, but it will take a leap of
faith, teamwork, including APMA, the colleges, and
our uber-successful private practitioners to
remedy the predicament. Granted, the mention of
APMA is usually an impediment by itself, but this
is a chance for our Washington friends to serve as
both an arbitrator and fixer to help ensure the
future podiatrists are not eaten alive; something
foreign to both the APMA, the colleges and those
practitioners who keep the banks open. It’s also a
chance for all the luddites who fear any changes
in podiatry to step up and put their wallets where
their silver quills have been. It’s time for loan
service to replace lip service.
New podiatry students will be limited to borrow
$50,000 a year for tuition and living expenses for
a maximum four year total of $200,000. Students
will be living in box cars and eat Rice Krispies
for four years. They must get a bus pass and clean
up at the colleges under the contamination
showers. Those DPM schools that share a gym or
pool with the universities can shave and shower on
campus. $50,000/year is unrealistic. As we all
know, second, third and fourth year students who
borrowed money before July 1, 2026 will be
protected and grandfathered into the old loan
structure by the government’s One Big Beautiful
Bill Act. Grandfathered, just like ABFAS step-
grandfathers; both change the rules like
underwear.
This is a crisis but remember for the last 50
years podiatry has lived by the maxim, “The
Chinese word for crisis is the same as
opportunity.” Thanks to ChatGPT we now know that
podiatry has been fibbing us about that maxim and
those two words, crisis and opportunity are not
the same, not in Mandarin or Cantonese or on the
China-Nepal border. But this is the opportunity
for all those podiatrists who have written PM News
to assure us that the profession is petro-
lucrative beyond our limited imaginations. It’s
time to stand up and buck up for the future of the
profession. No one is asking you to put a podiatry
student on a full ride scholarship, but why can’t
Dr. Daddy Podiatrybucks help sustain a podiatry
student and supplement the loan maximum? This is
not like the ASPCA ads on TV where $19 a month off
your American Express card saves a Doberman and
you get a t-shirt, but if you’ve been telling the
truth, it should pull at your heart strings or DME
profits.
The APMA and the schools must work together to
identify the needy students and in return, the
lender would get the services of the student after
the completion of the residency until the debt is
paid off. This is technically indentured
servitude, so the schools’ attorneys and the
APMA’s attorneys would have to work together to
make sure the students don’t get taken advantage
of. Not podiatry seminar attorneys dressed like
they are auditioning for the Sopranos.
Maybe the student needs $10,000 or $15,000 a year
extra. Upon completion of training the new
podiatrist owes, say, $60,000. He or she goes to
work for the loaning podiatrist as an employee and
earns a livable salary that subtracts enough money
per year to pay off the debt over an agreed upon
number of years.
It’s going to take work by the legal teams to make
the contracts unbiased and honest for all
involved. If the profession is worth it, and we
are told over and over that it is so lucrative
only a fool would opt to follow a different
profession, the powers that are will get this done
as soon as possible. Of course, CPME, AACPM and
the boards will have to weigh in to approve and
let us know they are still relevant. The first
time around the schools may have to make some
short term concessions to get the program started
and money divided and flowing.
Since admissions are down, not that many students
would need guardian angels. I predict there will
be more podiatrists willing to loan than students
who need money. This looks like a win-win-win
proposition. All schools, MD, DO and DDS face this
money crunch. This an unbelievable recruiting
tool. We let potential students know that podiatry
is so generous that practicing podiatrists will
loan you tuition money and set you up with a job
when you’re done training. It sure whips the “Beat
Your Corfam Street Shoes” plastic campaign.
Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD
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