Al's Morning Meeting

The AP recently included a story that said there is a nationwide shortage of dentists. The Portsmouth Herald says, "1,480 areas in the United States (are) designated by federal authorities as suffering from a dentist shortage. That number has nearly doubled since 1990.

"In some areas, even patients with private dental insurance have to wait months for an appointment, or travel long distances to a dentist with an open slot. Many low-income families have it worse: Their Medicaid coverage often isn't enough to gain access to already busy dentists."

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The AP said, "Nationwide, there are about 152,000 active dentists, more than one-third of them over 55, according to the American Dental Association. Experts estimate that dentists' ranks will begin to decline in about 10 years as the number of dental school graduates -- now about 4,000 annually -- falls below the number of dentists leaving the work force due to retirement or other reasons. To reverse the trend, dental schools would need to graduate more students. But many of the nation's 56 dental schools are struggling just to maintain current operations; there are more than 350 vacant faculty positions because of an exodus of teachers into better-paying private practice.

"Even now, there are severe shortages of dentists in certain regions -- a huge swath of the Great Plains, southern Texas, much of Nevada, northern Maine, and poor, rural counties in many other states. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says more than 31 million people live in shortage areas; officials estimate that 4,650 dentists would be needed to provide the proper level of service."

The Dodge City (Kan.) Daily Globe took the story a step further and shows how to localize it. They reported, "Ten Kansas counties -- including six in the southwest part of the state -- have no dentist. Twelve other counties have no full-time practitioner. Meanwhile, Johnson County in eastern Kansas has 265 dentists, or 27 percent of all who practice in the state. It's a classic case of haves versus have-nots, rural versus urban. And short of an influx of new dentists who don't mind being the only practitioner for miles and miles, the problem threatens to get more acute as dentists in rural areas ponder retirement."

Schools Grade Parents

Kathleen Lyons at the National Education Association dropped this story to Al's Morning Meeting. The Philadelphia Inquirer says, "The Philadelphia School District is rolling out simplified student report cards this year that will feature a grade certain to get every parent's attention: rating the 'home support' given to children. The 'home support' component was added to give parents 'gentle reminders' about what their children need at home, Paul G. Vallas, the district's chief executive officer, said yesterday. Teachers will assess several areas: Does the child appear rested? Is he or she getting proper attention for vision and hearing problems? Do parents respond to notes and phone calls? Does the child have the necessary supplies, including pencils and notebooks? Does the child complete homework assignments?"

What a great story. What is the link between a parent's performance and a kid's performance in school?

School Music Programs Rescued by VH-1

Kathleen also passed along this story from the Baltimore Sun about music education making a rebound in city schools, thanks in large part to the VH-1 Save the Music campaign. The story says, "Two years ago, there was no instrumental music class at Callaway, let alone instruments to play. Over two decades, budget cuts and back-to-basics academics had virtually squeezed fine-arts education from the city school system. But the tone is changing, thanks to collaboration between the city and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, which was established by the VH1 pop music cable channel in 1997 to restore instrumental education nationwide.

The website has some nice success stories from Milwaukee, D.C., L.A., and Dallas.

The Baltimore Sun included this passage, "'When I was in school, learning math and English, the courses I looked forward to were the art and music classes,' said Mayor Martin O'Malley at a news conference a week ago announcing the latest donations at Callaway. 'Over the years, they cut out music and art programs in the name of budget cuts. It's not a coincidence that academic performance has gone up since we put music back into the programs.'

"Fine-arts educators have long pointed to research showing the connection between visual arts, music, dance and theater education on one hand and a student's cognitive development on the other."

What is the condition of your community's school music programs?

Please, do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes listening to this outstanding piece of work by NPR's Michelle Trudeau. A growing number of psychiatric researchers agrees that bipolar disorder occurs in children and not just in adults. Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depression. Children as young as five or six years old suffer from the manic highs and deep depressions that characterize the disorder.

Michelle introduces listeners to a family whose son has bipolar disease. She also talks with the child in the story. It is a tremendous insight into a misunderstood condition.

NPR has an interesting series on the next epidemic. The story says, "In the past few decades, new diseases have been emerging at a rate of about one a year. This year it was Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Before the SARS epidemic was over, it struck more than 8,000 people in 32 countries. More than 700 people died. Health authorities around the world are on alert for the return of SARS. They're especially concerned that SARS -- or the next new disease -- might spread to developing nations ill-equipped to detect the threat and prevent its spread."

See what health experts worldwide are doing to predict the next epidemic and what causes these bugs to spread.

We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.