The Obama Conference Call With the WORD and Other Student News Organizations: A Missed Opportunity

By Jonathan Mena

As I sat listening to Obama’s phone conference call with the WORD and 114 other student journalism organizations last week, I wondered if any of my other student journalism colleagues from around the country were ready to bite his head off (figuratively speaking, of course) with tough questions. Sadly, only three were selected – perhaps, dare I say, pre-selected — and they seemed trapped in the Obama vortex and were star struck, to say the least. The representatives of the age groups that got recognitions for coming together and helping the President trounce McCain, failed to take a risk and grill him.

Jonathan Mena, a former WORD Senior Editor-Producer, posting information on Facebook during the September 27, 2010, conference call. ICIT's Distance Learning, for whom Mena now works, made possible the WORD's participation. Mena is officially graduates this semester.

Jonathan Mena, a former WORD Senior Editor-Producer, posting information on Facebook during the September 27, 2010, conference call. ICIT's Distance Learning, for whom Mena now works, made possible the WORD's participation. Mena officially graduates this semester.

That Obama mystique my fellow journos felt has long left me, and I now regard the man as I would any other pol I interview. He has the facts I need and I refuse to sugarcoat or kiss his ass to try to get answers. These students had the leader of the most powerful demcracy in the world on the phone and a University of Wisconsin reporter asked this head of state why he liked coming to Wisconsin?

I felt disappointed in that reporter. If that had been me, I would have pounced on him. Yes, it is commendable that the White House plans to increase the Pell Grant and allow students to remain on their parents’ insurance until they are 26 years old but where were  the knockout punch questions? Maybe I am more cynical but Obama’s plan for education is just a band aid for a serious gunshot wound. The plan is to make it easier for students to pay for school and increase the number of graduates. But the economy is still in an economic sinkhole and those gradates still need jobs.

Also, this fact seems to be ignored:  We pay  all this money for a college education with the hope that it will significantly improve our chances for decent jobs and careers after we graduate. Right now, the view is bleak for the short run and bleak for long rung as well. There are news editorials out there already saying that we are the Lost Generation.

The educational system needs major repair. I graduated from a high school where, because of overcrowding, I had classes in trailers and went to school for half a day because there weren’t enough seats for every student. Now, compare that to a school like Plainedge Middle School on Long Island which, at the same time I was taking classes in a storage container, students there had a planetarium on their campus.

The disparity is huge. I feel more focus is being put on churning out college graduates and not enough focus on rebuilding the fundamentals. Colleges have remedial classes for incoming freshman because high schools refuse to teach students the basics. The divide is huge between the type of education kids living in Brooklyn get compared to their peers in Nassau county. Not enough emphasis is put on that fact by the White House.

So if I was given the chance to ask Obama a question it wouldn’t have been a softball lob. “I had classes in a trailer home while students 45 minutes away from me had a planetarium inside their school,” I would have said. “What are you going to do to level the playing field?”

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