What is the #1 issue involving Wake's public schools (WCPSS)? Many say it is busing and neighborhood schools. Some say it is growth and overcrowding. Some say it is finding the money to meet WCPSS's 2006 budget. Superintendent McNeal says it is "complacency". He is right on target.

WCPSS's performance is its own worst enemy. After all Wake is the top performing countywide system in the state. Whether its End-of-Grade tests, SAT's or closing the educational gap between races, WCPSS is above average. Just look at the awards and plaudits it's won in the national press. Isn't that good enough?

Listen to what Microsoft's Bill Gates says: "When I compare our high schools to what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow. In math and science, our fourth graders are among the top students in the world. By eighth grade, they're in the middle of the pack. By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations. . . .The percentage of a population with a college degree is important, but so are sheer numbers. In 2001, India graduated almost a million more students from college than the United States did. China graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees as the U.S., and they have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind."

Or listen to what columnist and author Thomas Friedman says in writing about globalization: "And finally we are developing an education gap. Here is the dirty little secret that no C.E.O. wants to tell you: they are not just outsourcing to save on salary. They are doing it because they can often get better-skilled and more productive people than their American workers - When I was growing up, my parents used to say to me, "Tom, finish your dinner -- people in China are starving."... I am now telling my own daughters, "Girls, finish your homework -- people in China and India are starving for your jobs."

I am old enough to remember when the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, the first satellite in space. The nation was galvanized. It was clear to all that we had fallen behind in math and science. We weren't graduating enough scientists and engineers. It was a crisis. It was only a matter of time before we had Russian A-bombs carried by Russian missiles falling on our heads. The public demanded something be done. And for a while it was.

But now we are seduced by a flow of cheap goods from China or by a friendly voice half-way around the world helping us with our computer. We don't react to the fact that in the last decade 3 billion smart educated people have entered the world's workforce. They have raised the bar.

And what do we do? We argue about being inconvenienced about a school a few miles away from home. Or that it takes more than an hour for Johnny to do his homework. We endlessly debate whether we can afford the price of a cup of coffee per day to get all our students to the next level of educational excellence. We are more concerned about Johnny being taught in a trailer than we are about the shortage of qualified teachers or the number of students not graduating or going on to higher education.

Our prosperity here in Wake County has been built on a steady flow of technology and inventions. And yet we are complacent when a Chinese company buys IBM's PC business. Have we lost the will to compete?

If we wait for the County Commissioners or the governor or the congress or the president to lead us out of our complacency we will wait to hell freezes over. Nothing is going to happen until the mothers and fathers and concerned citizens of Cary and Wake County demand support for educational excellence from their local leaders.

Where to start? We have a school board and a superintendent dedicated to educational excellence. They have given us a detailed program about how to get to the next step by 2008, You can learn more about it at http://www.wcpss.net/budget/2005-06-spss/videoguide.html The next step is up to the County Commissioners. Here is the email address of Chairman Joe Bryan: joe.bryan@co.wake.nc.us Now its up to you.