Editorial: Tune in to the Union

As Pitt basketball climbed to a No. 2 national ranking, it’s understandably hard for students… As Pitt basketball climbed to a No. 2 national ranking, it’s understandably hard for students to wrench their eyes from ESPN, no matter the justification.

But at least regarding tonight’s primetime TV, there’s no need for the NCAA and President Barack Obama to be mutually exclusive. If you can locate a pause in the action as the Buckeyes take on the Boilermakers, you might find the annual State of the Union address, broadcast on most major networks, worthwhile.

The new year is only beginning to unravel, though college students around the country are already feeling the pinch of worsening societal issues — issues that demand resolution. Despite a massive stimulus effort and a technical “end” to the recession, unemployment still reigns, and conditions are now worse for students than they were before. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment among people younger than 25 with bachelor’s degrees has shot from less than 6 percent two years ago to 9.6 percent in December, higher than the national unemployment rate.

And when millions of Americans are scraping by without work, parents — and in the case of federal grants, taxpayers too — are increasingly forced to shell out massive sums to pay for ballooning tuition rates. This is all for a college education that is underutilized (the first two years of college impart no learning benefits on more than a third of students, according to a recent NYU report) and in large part is financially unhelpful. The Project on Student Debt reports that average college students grapple with $24,000 worth of post-baccalaureate debt, and it’s debt that will likely plague them for years to come — unless, of course, they happen to be in accounting, computer science or the lucrative new business of fracking shale deposits.

A host of other issues stand poised to affect students as well. As Senate Republicans have put Obama’s 2009 health-care legislation in the crosshairs, young people might lose the newfound right to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26. Also, though the national debt might not find itself on most students’ priorities, the deficit-reduction methods currently being fought over on Capitol Hill — like raising taxes, downsizing the military and cutting other government programs — could directly affect young people, either now or down the road. And don’t even get us started about post-stimulus state budget problems, like the Pennsylvanian version that’s putting student-friendly Port Authority buses in jeopardy.

Sure to impact our generation, these issues must be addressed by various levels of government. Watching the State of the Union address offers a basic diagnostic of how the federal government plans to solve our problems. It’s a way to demand accountability from elected leaders without getting off the couch (or out of the Snuggie, since this is 2011).

No doubt the address has received flack in recent years for having an old format and an unintended emphasis on the bitter divides in Washington, D.C., (who could forget Sen. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” exclamation from last year). But considering how much young people have invested in governmental decisions to come, perhaps keeping the TV on after “The Biggest Loser” might be worth your time. If not, there’s always streaming online.