S.7 -- Education Opportunity Act of 2009. "To expand educational opportunities for all Americans by increasing access to high-quality early childhood education and after school programs, advancing reform in elementary and secondary education, strengthening mathematics and science instruction, and ensuring that higher education is more affordable." An education omnibus bill that will no doubt be split up into separate pieces of legislation.

As 2009 arrives and legislative priorities fall into place behind the stimulus bill, a trailer for a documentary on student debt has come along that captures the struggles many recent college grads are facing in paying student loans while simultaneously weathering this rough economy. Default -- the title of the film -- explores the stories of borrowers whose lives have been turned upside down by skyrocketing interest rates and a poor economy. Here's the trailer:

A summary of the film at its website explains the problem.

In 2005 private student loans were exempted of ALL consumer protections. No matter when their loans were taken, many borrowers now find themselves in a paralyzing predicament of repaying two, three or multiple times the original amount borrowed, with no bankruptcy protection, no cap on fees and penalties and no recourse to the law. The consequences are dire, with stories of borrowers in financial and emotional ruin.

Beyond these personal accounts, DEFAULT will explain the differences between federal and private student loans, a subject often overlooked by colleges and high school counselors. It will also give detail on the rise of the private lending industry and of college debt.

While the media has focused on the disaster that sub-prime mortgages have turned out to be, only superficial attention has been given to financial giants which have been profiting by approving loans to low-income students with variable interest rates up to 25%.

The woman speaking near the end of the trailer about the pressure on our generation to step in for retiring Boomers in fields like law, medicine, and engineering is absolutely correct -- the price tag for not only the education for those careers, but for the loans students have to take out to finance that education, is harming us. In the last ten years, seniors with student loans saw their debt more than double from $9,250 to $19,200, a 108% increase (58% after factoring in inflation). Keeping in mind that tuition has increased at public colleges and universities from 2001 to 2006 by 40% after inflation, many students may not even be able to get to their careers in one piece.

While we need to remember that not every Millennial is a college graduate or student, this is an excellent example of an issue that directly impacts us. While the issue would probably be best dealt with by a younger Congress (not the oldest one ever), we have no choice but to work with what we have. We should be pushing our representatives and senators to do something about this issue, letting them know we're not going to forget about it.

With skyrocketing interest rates and disappearing consumer protections in the student loan industry facing us, it's up to us to repair the problem. Contact your representative and/or senator now.

First, we attempted to measure the extent to which young voters are on the minds of local party leaders--are they on their "radar," so to speak? Near the beginning of the survey we asked an open-ended question: "Are there demographic groups of voters that are currently important to the longterm success of your local party." "Young voters" (defined as 18 to 25 years of age) were mentioned by just 8 percent of party leaders. Senior citizens were mentioned nearly three times as often, even though the question addresses the "long-term
success of the party."

And the enthusiasm has a way of spreading. Wearing a pink Chanel suit and gold heels, Holly Hennessy, a wealthy older Republican woman in Palm Beach, Fla., came out of the polls on Tuesday with goose bumps after deciding at the last second to vote for Mr. Obama.

Matthew Weiner, the creator of "Mad Men," the AMC television series set in the early '60s, predicted that there would be more to come. "A year from now you're going to see that 65 to 70 percent of the people are going to claim they voted for Obama even if they didn't," he said. "That's what happened with Kennedy. People will be swept up in it."

And yet, such a sweeping success could also breed trouble. "The risk is they vote for the first time, and then there's this incredible long-shot win -- 'Gee this is easy,' " said Kurt Andersen, a founder of Spy and former editor of New York Magazine. There is also "a risk of this generation conflating our iPhones with the substantive policy progress that the iPhones and laptops enable."

Inevitably, he said, "growing up is all about disappointment and things not going well -- so that is a natural next step."

The pain of dashed hopes, if it comes, could be eased by this generation's news media diet, which has made them fantastically informed and skeptical. Or it could be worsened by the psychology of how they were raised and came of age.

Generations are more than just numbers; they have personalities that are shaped by many factors, including what's happening in the world when they come of age. The Millennial personality comes closest to that of the "GI generation," the one lauded by some as the "Greatest Generation," members of which fought in World War II and built up America and the world in the postwar boom. Millennials are fundamentally optimistic, willing to trust political leaders who perform well, and they believe in government again.

Their optimism has been well-captured in a series of Pew surveys. In a February 2006 survey, 18-29 year olds were the most optimistic age group in assessing whether today's children would grow up better or worse off than people are now (45 percent better/40 percent worse--other age groups responded more negatively than positively by margins of 17-27 points). In a July, 2006 survey, 18-29 year olds were the most optimistic about whether they would move ahead in life (as measured by self-placement on a "ladder of life" going from 0 as lowest to 10 as highest) in the next five years; 72 percent thought they would, compared to 13 percent who expected no change and 8 percent who thought things would get worse. They were also more likely to believe they had made progress in life in the last five years (58 percent thought so, while 20 percent thought they'd stayed the same and 18 percent thought they'd slipped).

The swirling uncontrolled greed that George W. Bush and his cronies unleashed on our nation has depleted the resources necessary for the Arts to thrive in our schools. Barack Obama understands that "The Art Spirit" needs to have a home in education and in our culture as a whole. He clarified his position a bit more within an issues page on change.gov, and he actually admitted that he considers himself an artist!

Barack Obama's Plan

Arts

Our nation's creativity has filled the world's libraries, museums, recital halls, movie houses, and marketplaces with works of genius. The arts embody the American spirit of self-definition. As the author of two best-selling books - Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama uniquely appreciates the role and value of creative expression.

At first I was conflicted. Whoever wrote "as the author of two best-selling books" should have known how crass and common that pitch would sound. When I calmed down enough to understand what it was trying to say (taking out the "best-selling" would help for me) I realized that basically...

Our new President Elect considers himself an artist. As should we all.

It's extremely exciting to see this shift in priorities already appearing.  I have always been an advocate for arts education, and I think, along with civics education, it's one of the most important things for young people to learn.  We get so stuck on math and science, and -- the author is correct -- the resources to expand the education we offer to students get eaten up by wars we shouldn't be fighting and tax cuts we shouldn't be giving.

Nicholas Kristof's column is up on the Times website, and he addresses intellectualism and how interesting it will be to have a president who finds delight in nuance, who embraces philosophy and poetry.  Along similar lines, it will be nice to have a president who advocates for arts programs, resisting the effort to cut them in order to suit a failed policy (NCLB).

It will be nice to have an "artist-in-chief" as well as a commander-in-chief.

Molly and I had decided to stay an extra day in Philadelphia in order to sightsee a bit in the city.  We drove into the city and parked near the Philadelphia Art Museum (of Rocky fame).  In order to get to our destination of Independence Square, we took a trolley that Molly's brother Mike had told us about.  Everything worked out fine; after we finished walking through the American galleries, we hopped on the Phlash Trolley to get to Independence Square.  After we finished walking around Independence Hall and touring the National Constitution Center, we realized that it was about 6:00 PM -- the last stop for the trolley that evening.  Looking through the pamphlet and schedule for the trolley, we saw that we had some time to work with since the trolley was not scheduled to come back to Independence Square until 6:22.  Even so, we waited at the stop.  At 6:18 the trolley pulls up.  I got up, stood next to it, and waited for it to open its doors so we could get on -- except the doors did not open.  The woman driving the bus seemingly ignored us (I think she knew she was going to have to drop us off someplace where she had already made her last stop) as she was stopped at the red light at the intersection.  When the light turned green, the trolley rolled on down the street with Molly and me watching in disbelief.

"What now?" I asked.  Molly called her brother and notified him of what had happened.  Mike advised us to find another trolley (luckily there was one within sight, across and down the street).  We asked the driver if she was headed in the direction of the Art Museum.  She was not, she told us, but the trolley that had driven off without us might be heading back in our direction.  Also, the SEPTA bus -- the 17 line -- should go toward the Art Museum.  Did we want her to wait on us?  No, I told her.  We'd figure things out on our own.

Sure enough, the Phlash trolley returned.  Instead of pulling up alongside the curb, though, it drove up to the same intersection as before, but in the opposite direction.  It was also in the left lane.  Choosing to notice us this time, the driver opened her doors and yelled toward us.  I couldn't really understand her, but her face and her actions and mannerisms made clear that she had already made her last stop and we were not welcome to get a ride.

We elected to wait on the 17 bus.  It arrived fairly soon, but the driver told us that it would not take us to the Art Museum; instead, the driver said, we shoud wait on the other route at that stop, the 33 line, which would take us there.  Another five minutes passed before the 33 arrived.  Upon boarding, I inquired of the driver the price for tickets.  The driver said "$2.00" and instructed me to slide the bill that I had in my hand -- a $10.00 bill -- through the machine and told me I would get change.  As I let go of the bill and the machine recorded the dollar amount, the driver suddenly became exasperated, asking me in disbelief why I would slide a $10.00 bill into it.  "If I had known you had a $10.00 bill, I would have given you the change myself."  You see, apparently the machine on the bus does not process that amount.  Exasperated, tired, and ready to be out of the city, I, without thinking, replied, "Whatever."  This is not a smart move when you're around people that use the public transportation as a lifeline.  Immediately, I got the collective opinion of those on the bus.  "That's a damn shame."  "Unbelievable.  $10.00?"  Even the driver chipped in -- "In my eighteen years on this bus, I've never had anyone do that."  As the driver filled out the rebate form (for $6), I was bombarded with detailed instructions on how to redeem the rebate.  Eventually the driver asked us where we were headed.  When I told him the Art Museum, we again elicited frustration.  "We're not even going there!" he exclaimed.  The driver dropped us off in an average-at-best neighborhood with coupons instructing us to get on the 43 line, which would take us to the museum.  After asking a local teenager for help, we eventually got on the 43 and got to the Museum -- finally.

The point of all this?  I realized that while I spend so much time in the ivory tower, academic frame of mind, I really don't have the opportunity to feel the differences between different lifestyles and cultures.  And when you're in that situation, it's so challenging to see the commonalities in all of us.  When we're truly scared of something socially, we notice the differences in our dominant culture and the prevailing culture instinctively.  Too many people don't get past that.  We need to challenge ourselves, no matter what the situation, to look at the things that bond us together.  No matter how big the differences are, there are those links.

Four months before he was shot, President Kennedy discussed these bonds in a commencement speech to American University (June 10, 1963):

...Let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

Differences -- things that make us unique -- should be celebrated, and the linkages we share should be remembered.

What is a situation in which you found yourself challenged?

Findings of a new nationwide survey show a connection between cleaner college facilities and academic achievement, according to the survey’s sponsors, with 88 percent of students saying they are distracted from learning in even casually or moderately messy environments. In addition, 84 percent of students surveyed said good learning environments should be spotless or very tidy.