"In January, California's lieutenant governor proposed a fast-track medical school that would shave three years off the training needed to become a physician. It wasn't the first time such an idea had raised eyebrows," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "But a handful of medical schools have, for decades, offered six-year programs that combine undergraduate and graduate degrees to students who are in a hurry to become doctors. And starting this fall, Tulane University's medical school hopes to join them, breaking up the degrees with a year of community service. Accelerated options persist, their supporters say, because they offer a sensible solution for today's shrinking state budgets, soaring tuition, and looming doctor shortage."