We can no longer afford a collective shoulder shrug about the shortage of teachers. Legislators must act now to correct that problem – and they appear poised to do so.

Rep. Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, and Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue, have introduced legislation requiring the state to identify how many additional math and science teachers are needed and to develop a comprehensive strategy for getting them.

Other states already have gone through this exercise and are ahead of us in competing for those with strong math and science skills.

The bill calls for better coordination of existing programs to prepare and attract math and science teachers. It would streamline and accelerate alternative routes to certification for those with substantial math and science experience and an interest in a midcareer change to the teaching profession. And it would explore differential pay and other financial incentives to help recruit and retain math and science teachers in a competitive marketplace.

Similar approaches could be applied to other specialized, high-demand disciplines such as teaching special-education students or English language learners. But math and science teachers should be the first step, given the existing shortage and the need to provide more and better instruction in these subjects to meet impending graduation requirements.

Having teacher pay reflect market supply and demand, rather than solely education and experience levels, is a fundamental shift in how we think about teacher compensation. It’s also a change that is absolutely necessary.

In 1993, the Legislature launched the standards-based education reform movement. Our lawmakers declared that our schools needed significant improvement to adequately prepare students for the rigors of employment and citizenship in a fast-changing, technologically driven global economy.

They recognized huge variances in educational quality between school districts, so they established an independent, statewide assessment of student skills. Since then, the world has only grown more complex, more technically sophisticated and more globally competitive.

The policies and deadlines established years ago are about to have real impact. One response recognizes where we still have work to do and takes aggressive steps to move forward. That is what the math and science teacher bill would do.

Another approach is to retreat, hoping the problems somehow fix themselves. For instance, some legislators apparently favor delaying the reading and writing requirements that nearly 90 percent of the class of 2008 have already passed. They worry how voters will react when diplomas aren’t given to students who have yet to demonstrate the baseline reading and writing skills needed in today’s society. They don’t want to unfairly “punish” these students for a “system failure.”

Much more unfair to these students – and the most egregious failure of the K-12 system – would be to knowingly let them leave school with a diploma but not the skills it is meant to represent.

The fact is that students today need more skills than ever before to compete in a global economy. Failure to recognize this and to help them develop those skills means falling short in our responsibility to them.

A recent College Work Ready Agenda study documents the higher-skills threshold for jobs paying enough to support a family. Within seven years, more than three-quarters of these new job openings in our state will go to workers with education beyond high school. Half will be held by workers with four-year college degrees.

The public recognizes this trend. In a 2007 Partnership for Learning poll, 83 percent of respondents said that in today’s world all kids need at least some education beyond high school.

Students recognize it, too. They’re pursuing continuing education in record numbers; 76 percent of Washington high school graduates enter a two- or four-year college within two years of graduation.

But our schools are falling short in preparing many of them. More than half of those who immediately enroll in two-year colleges need remedial courses before taking credit-bearing classes. In addition to the time and expense involved in this remediation, these students are more prone to drop out.

The story is even worse when it comes to four-year colleges and universities. Currently, if students just meet the minimum high school graduation requirements, they won’t even be eligible to apply for a four-year college.

The state Board of Education is proposing changes in graduation standards to close this gap. This is an important move that must be supported by lawmakers. The public is already there: 80 percent say high school graduation course standards in math should be increased to align with minimum college entrance requirements, and 72 percent support an increase even if it makes earning a high school diploma more difficult.

Let’s build a K-12 system that meets real-world requirements, not change our requirements to reflect our current system. We can’t prepare students for success in the 21st century by taking our education system back to 1992.

Brad Smith is senior vice president and general counsel for Microsoft. He also chairs the Washington Roundtable’s education committee and the Partnership for Learning.