Education is already fully funded. The money is wasted more often than not.
You're right about the money often being wasted. Really, when I say "funding" I really meant investment. We need to invest better into education to reform our educational system. We need more technical abilities being taught at the high school level. College is much too expensive and doesn't pay off very well nowadays. And the fiasco that is student loans is bleeding people dry, making it all the more unattractive for people to even pursue. Perhaps most importantly, the funding needs to shift from the federal level to the state level.
And there is new regulations in the pipeline that would allow nurses to see & diagnose patients without having to consult a doctor.
Yes, some states are considering opening up the role for nurse practitioners and allowing them to absorb some of the burden. But this is ultimately a superficial solution. There is a shortage of doctors in our country, but in many ways the nursing shortage is even worse. So it really will be the equivalent of moving around your peas on your dinner plate to make it look like you've eaten most of them.
The way things work right now, there are specific limitations to how many new doctors can be licensed each year. These limitations have not kept up with population increases. So we have more patients and fewer and fewer doctors year after year. It makes no sense. Qualified and capable people are coming out of medical school but cannot become doctors because there are more students than licenses, even though the industry has demand for the labor. A similar problem exists in nursing, but on the front side of the educational system; there are many people who want to enter nursing school but cannot do so because classroom seats are limited by regulations that require instructors to have a minimum of a master's degree. Of course, a nurse with a master's degree is usually a well established professional holding a high level (and high paying) administrative role or is a privately practicing nurse practitioner (also a high paying role). So a shortage of instructors, due to regulatory requirements, creates a shortage of classroom seats available, even despite a glut of eager, qualified students and high labor demand in the industry.
