Not only that, developing nations such as India are producing engineers who are happy to work for $7,500 a year. Even if we succeed in matching the education levels of these Indian graduates, the report asks, "why would the world's employers pay us more than they have to pay the Indians to do their work?"

The only solution is to produce people who are competent, creative and innovative, and who can adapt quickly.

The report, available at www.skillscommission.org, recommends a radical reorganization of public education at the state level. Rather than school districts, a state board of examination would pass kids onto college when they're ready. All schools would be operated by independent contractors and would be monitored for performance. Teachers would be paid up to $110,000 a year and would be rewarded for performance.

The problem isn't that teachers today aren't working hard enough. The problem, as Brock puts it, is that we have an education system built for the industrial age, but we need one for the digital information age.

Getting there will take the united efforts of teachers unions, educators, vouchers proponents, parents and politicians — people willing to sit down to hammer out something new.

Or maybe we should tackle something a little easier first, like world peace.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com