More than 70 percent of American teenagers are unemployed, according to government data reported this week by the Associated Press. How’s that “Hope and Change” workin’ out for ya, kids?

Those hardest hit: minorities and teens from low-income families, who tend to have few skills. Their entry-level jobs are being taken by older, higher-skilled people who cannot find jobs in their chosen fields. “We are truly in a labor market depression for teens,” Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, told the AP.

Meanwhile, President Obama has ballooned the federal debt to $15.7 trillion, and the Congressional Budget Office calculates that debt held by the public will reach 70 percent of GDP by the end of this year and 200 percent by 2037.

Teens who cannot find work today have little hope of finding any tomorrow. They face a grim future of higher taxes and slower economic growth because their President insists despite all evidence to the contrary that borrowing from the future to dispense money to his political allies now is the only path to prosperity.

The schools might not teach young people how flawed leftist economic policies are, but reality is starting to do so.