Beitzel: Obama ready to revamp education. Are students?

President Obama delivered his first State of the Union speech on Tuesday, though it was his… President Obama delivered his first State of the Union speech on Tuesday, though it was his third address to a joint session of Congress.

As I sat down to watch, I wondered if he’d say the state of our union is weak. I wondered if NBC would move the speech to midnight. I also sat down ready for disappointment in the president.

Obama’s been gone. Don’t call it a comeback, but the address had some impact, especially if you’re a student or jobless — if those terms aren’t synonymous.

The State of the Union is built like the Bill of Rights: The priorities come first. Which is why it was surprising that it took him an hour to say all U.S. combat troops will be out of Iraq by September. It shows you how much the U.S. populace cares about that war right now.

The brief national security section came long after sections on jobs, energy independence, higher education, deficit reduction and even renewed bipartisanship.

People don’t care about Osama anymore. They want jobs.

College graduates are among those most nervous about the job market. We were told that we needed higher education. And we were promised that, if we got it, good jobs awaited. Yet, soon-to-be alumni are now wondering if their investment was worth it.

Debt that soars in the tens of thousands of dollars is a massive burden. Often, the cost is dismissed by older Americans who say, “You’re young. You have time.” In our minds, we don’t. Ask the crowd about to graduate in the spring, and they’ll tell you they’re worried.

I’m in that camp. Recently, I was talking to a relative who graduated from college about seven years ago. She said she felt bad for this year’s batch of graduates. Though the job market hasn’t been much better for her, she said, “At least we had a feeling of hope.”

The recession stole that from our class.

Obama is trying to restore the optimism graduates should hold, the idea that the world is open and self-fulfillment is possible. In his address, he mentioned that tuition has reached “record highs.” Thankfully, Obama called for a slew of new initiatives to help students.

If students can’t afford to pay for college, some just don’t go, which results in a less educated populace — not dumber, but certainly less doctors and engineers. Other underprivileged would-be students are forced to take out extra loans. That means more debt, assuming banks will lend it to begin with. Upon graduation, some students have to take any job that pays the loan bills.

So it was a relief to hear the president talk about resolving this struggle. He said, “No one should go broke because they chose to go to college.” To prevent bankruptcy or ruin, he proposed ending tax subsidies to banks that provide student loans. Instead, he wants to use that money for a $10,000 family tax credit toward four years of college. Even better, Obama supports loan-interest forgiveness, saying students should only have to pay 10 percent of the total interest after 20 years and forgiveness after 10 years if they go into public service.

For this governmental help, Obama demanded that universities cut their own costs, too. Hallelujah. Let’s start with textbooks. Get rid of them and start issuing iPads. I’ll gladly spend $500 on that instead of $500 per semester on books.

These proposals are much more alluring than his campaign promise for a $4,000 tuition credit in exchange for 100 hours of community service. But if he didn’t get that done — or much else that was significant — why should we believe him now? The speech was basically a 2008 campaign redux, but given after a year of little accomplishment and shattered popularity.

We should trust and support him now because the presidency needs to be more than a whipping post. Americans must do more than select someone to blame for four years at a time. Maybe it’s cathartic, but it’s not constructive.

People, especially Democrats, are mad at Obama because of an old lesson from “The West Wing.” It’s not because he broke his promises. Rather, he made promises he couldn’t keep. It’s the “deficit of trust” he spoke about in his address.

However, Obama’s proposals for college students are realistic. Unlike ending partisanship or massive industry overhauls, tax credits and interest forgiveness are tangible, attainable goals. They are lush with long-term benefits with the added virtue of serving our self-interest.

The initiatives aren’t sexy, like a cash-cow green economy or a fortress on Mars, but wonky efforts like them will help millions of current and prospective students. And a jobs bill, as Obama demanded, should restore a little of that old hope to graduates.

Obama spent almost as much time talking about higher education as he did national security. It showcases his commitment. Now, students have to meet him halfway by writing letters to representatives and voting for supportive candidates.

If students cannot rally around the idea of less debt and lower tuition, we cannot expect older Americans, including the president, to continue caring about skyrocketing university expenses.

Last week, conservatives somehow got a Republican elected to the Liberal Lion’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. Students can’t expect to get a job if they can’t get their own representatives to pass uncontroversial tuition relief.

But at least students would have an answer to their earlier quandary: No, the investment wasn’t worth it, because apparently they didn’t learn a thing.

E-mail Dave at drb34@pitt.edu.