The Florida legislature is considering a proposal that would pay dental school graduates to practice in rural communities, Spectrum News reported March 10.
Under the program, the state would pay 10 graduates $50,000 a year on top of their salary to work in a low-income or rural community. Dentists would be allowed to participate in the program up to five times to help pay off their student loan debt.
The program was previously left out of the state's past two budgets because of funding issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. If included in the state's budget, the program would receive more than $1.77 million in state funding.
More than two dozen facilities across the Central Florida area are in need of dentists, according to data from the state's Department of Health and Human Services.