Pity the poor children, follow the money, and don't shoot the messenger

MPUSD officials and administrators unwittingly stepped into a minefield when they accepted offers by Salud Para La Gente to open a dental clinic at the Cabrillo site.

I didn't make it to the portion of Monday's meeting, when Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas CEO Max Cuevas and his supporters urged Monterey trustees not to approve the contract with Salud Para La Gente. But based on conversations I've had afterwards with interested parties, it can't have been pleasant.

For what I know, major reforms in the federal health care system are coming down the pike, and there will only be limited dollars to local providers, which has unleashed a very ugly fight among them. My guess is it's only going to get uglier.

What concerns me, frankly, it's services, specifically, services for low income children. Had MPUSD not approved the contract with Salud, who knows how long it would have been until children in Seaside had access to dental care. According a preliminary report by CSUMB, there are no dental health clinics for low-income people in the Monterey Peninsula.

I'm not taking sides here. All I'd like to see is children's health needs taken care of. I hope cooler heads prevail and this quarrel doesn't become nastier than it already has.