After watching the news or picking up a newspaper, I often feel as if America is falling apart.

Headlines dissecting the utter unaffordability of our country’s public universities have been peppering the newspapers for the past week or two. And why not? It’s a good story — drama, massive fiscal crises, the fall of the middle class. For a fleeting second, I let out a relieved sigh, glad that I only have one semester left to worry about the “skyrocketing tuition rates and devastating budget cuts” universities are facing. But then reality chimed in — oh yeah, grad school.

I can’t sugarcoat it — I’m terrified. It’s one thing to read all the data, scour the statistics, but when you’re about to begin four more years of school during one of the most drastic tuition hikes in history and the worst recession in almost 80 years, it’s another story. Articles from CNN and MSNBC gloss over the fact that students are taking on massive loans and having a much harder time getting them, but quickly move on. But when this reality is staring you in the face, the abstract words from a middle-aged journalist start to lose their credibility.

I was lucky. Due to generous forethought of grandparents and success of an investment, I was able to pay for my undergraduate tuition. I’m thankful every day that that luck has allowed me to finish a degree in a field I love. But several years ago, that investment would have lasted well into graduate school as well. In the last two months, what is leftover has been halved. The gods be willing, it will last until graduation. The going rate for my preferred graduate school, however, is almost $7,000 per quarter. As I said, I’m terrified.

President-elect Obama has proposed a $4,000 tax credit for students who are willing to perform 100 hours of community service. Although this is a much-needed start to addressing the problem of college affordability, it barely scratches the surface of the problem. Students bogged down in tens of thousands of dollars of debt are scrambling to juggle three part-time jobs while keeping up their precious, expensive grades. The thought of adding another commitment would probably make them laugh if they weren’t so stressed. In other words, this is not enough.

According to CNN, “College tuition continues to outpace family income and the price of other necessities, such as medical care, food and housing.” But what does this say to the student that doesn’t have family helping them pay? So many students forego grocery shopping so they can pay their rent, subsisting on SpaghettiOs for weeks at a time, while they continue to take on loan after loan to keep up with tuition.

It strikes me as odd that the majority of the population isn’t in a state of panic when the high school dropout rate in major U.S. cities is estimated at nearly 50 percent And according to current projections, when the other half of these students do graduate high school, they won’t be able to pay for college.

We need to stop with the hype and sensational headlines, or worse, articles making a mockery of the problem (CNN’s “Rising costs could push college out of reach” — could?). They sensationalize, but don’t demand solutions or change.

To call this a serious problem just won’t do it — we are facing a massive crisis. And when many families are worrying about putting food on their tables, paying for medical care or paying for their young children’s winter coats, the education of a future generation of leaders is the last thing we can afford to give up.

Obama has a good idea with his tuition credit, but he needs to set aside a substantially larger amount of time, staff and energy devoted to finding many more good ideas. Students need to become involved as well — reading the fine print of our segregated fees, asking question after question when denied financial aid and most importantly, standing up for ourselves. To be denied education is to be denied freedom, and if this crisis is not taken on vigorously and immediately, the next generations may be generations of prisoners.

Laura Brennan ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in communicative disorders.