By Zeretha Jenkins

America was able to take a brief sigh of relief as President Obama, in delivering his State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, vowed to invest in such key areas of recovery as scientific research, our roads, and definitely our schools and troubled educational system. Throughout his speech, he stressed the need for not only Congress but for all Americans to pull together as we attempt to overcome the barrage of domestic and international challenges facing us today. We must, for the sake of our future.

Of extreme importance to New Yorkers as well as others throughout the country whose children participate in the Supplemental Education Services (SES) Program, was President Obama’s statement that he intends later this year to replace the existing federal program, No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) launched by former President George W. Bush in 2002, with his new Race To the Top Program. The significance of the NCLB is that of implementing SES, or Supplemental Education Services, also known as tutorial services, to students who attend low academically–performing schools. The obvious goal of the program is that of improving students’ skills in Math as well as English/Language Arts. These services are provided free to students who quality.

In New York City, the SES Program serves literally thousands of children throughout the five boroughs of the city. Needless to say, New York City has one of the largest, most diverse and most challenging school systems in the world. Because of the vast amount of diversity in terms of various races, ethnicities, and cultures served, the SES Program is of key importance in helping to improve students’ chances for academic success by targeting individual educational deficits, including language barriers when apropos, that may hinder students’ academic progress.

Though enthusiastic about Race To The Top Program, President Obama revealed very few details about the program during his address. Hopefully the program will not only focus on students ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade, but also will expand its scope and purpose to include students attending college and other institutions of higher education.

One critical area in which the Race To The Top Program can be a significant improvement over the NCLB is in the area of increased funding regarding the academic careers of students beyond the secondary school level. It is no secret that financing a student’s education can be extremely expensive, especially in New York, one of the most expensive cities in the world. It is amazing, without doubt, how so much of the financial aid offered by the government to students is in the form of loans. Whereas loans are helpful, they also bring with them the added burden of repayment. It seems ironic how we as Americans put so much emphasis on helping students perform well from kindergarten through 12th grade, but then appear to have a major shift in focus once the student pursues a higher education. Suddenly many go from a very secure environment that nurtures them to achieve their academic best to one that almost surely dictates that they repeatedly secure student loans in order to continue their academic careers.

Shouldn’t students’ focus be more on performing well academically than being fixated on how many hours they must work per week and how many loans they must secure just to get over the financial hump per academic year? America is the richest country in the world. Why can’t we do more to finance the higher education of our students? We can if we try harder.

Yes, one would agree that attending college is a great experience; however, paying for it is not. Once the honeymoon between students and government is over following high school graduation – i.e., once students say “Good-bye!” to secondary school and “Hello!” to higher education, in many cases, they suddenly become strapped with tons of financial debt in order to attend college. As a result, they’re then left to figure out how to repay the borrowed money within a given timeframe in the midst of our dwindling economy and rising unemployment. Both sides – the students and the federal government -- eventually divorce and go their separate ways, only to clash numerous times down the road when students, through lack of adequate income, fail to repay their loans in a timely manner.

Upon closer examination, it’s really ironic how students are encouraged to pursue a higher education, particularly at the college level, in order to increase their chances of creating a better life for themselves in the future Yet as time passes, many of these students go on to encounter the gatekeeper who demands repayment of the student loans even before the students can cross over into the land of gainful employment. Before you know it, the gatekeeper has successfully and securely slipped the shackles of excessive financial debt around the students’ throats and ankles, rendering them immobile in a land founded on freedom. They abruptly find themselves in a land that echoes the belief that one can have the American dream -- if he or she works hard. The truly sad part is that the American dream once -- so much in reach --unfortunately is becoming more of an actual dream than reality for so many of its citizens. America – we can do better to help our own. In the spirit of President Obama’s own words, “Yes we can!”

Why is it that today more than ever, so many students are graduating from college with $20,000, $30,000 and even $40,000 of debt attributable to financial aid, better known as student loans? Is there any surprise in learning that the single most expensive investment a person can make today is that of investing in his or her own education? Believe it or not, purchasing a home has slipped to the number two-investment slot!

Is this what the new American dream of the 21st century is all about – i.e., debt and unemployment, and the endless yet increasing cycle of poverty? Is it? America, still the most prosperous country on earth, needs to re-examine the infrastructure of its educational system and its funding of that system. We need to do it now.

For students, their parents and the economy in general, there is nothing appealing or advantageous about college students graduating with a $20,000, $30,000 and even $40,000 price tag attached to their diplomas. Some graduation gift! Hopefully, President Obama’s new Race To The Top Program will address this topic of students being over-burdened with excessive financial aid debt. In addition to that, perhaps Race To The Top will also address the large percentage of funds allocated for the SES Program annually but which are never utilized by students earmarked for those services. If there is a surplus of funds left over after the targeted population’s educational needs have bee served via the SES Program, why not expand the program’s qualifications to include children needing tutorial services but who do not meet the requirements of the targeted population? Those excess funds could be made available to finance tutorial services for those particular children on a first come-first served basis until the funds are expended. At least, more children would be helped, thus increasing their chances of succeeding academically.

With an unstable economy nationwide and especially in New York City where the effects of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 have greatly impacted New York’s economic recovery, one is prompted to ask: America, realistically speaking, how do we expect students to get ahead and really have a shot at the American dream given the current state of the nation and given the fact that they’re being inundated with excessive debt as an unwelcomed and unexpected graduation gift? By all means, let us all sit around the table this time around and join the discussion. (There’s room for everybody!) For if we don’t address this 8,000-lb.guerilla sitting in our laps, it’s our own future, this time, that we’re gambling away, and the stakes are too high.

America, we can do better. Let’s give our students -- our future – the proper send off into the world of possibilities. Give them wings to soar to heights unknown. For if we bind them, they may be grounded for the rest of their lives and for the remainder of our future. So let’s strategize and discover a solution together. After all – that is the American way!