Many entry level employees do not have the skills to become productive members of the work force. The nationwide decline in educational performance is documented by functional illiteracy among 13 percent of white 17-year-olds, and 42 percent of black 17-year-olds; a decline in the national average scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT); and increasing school dropout rates. High technology, a service-oriented society, the integration of immigrants, and global competition offer new challenges to the ability of American education to produce a competent work force. At fault is the overregulated and uncontrolled education system. Consumers are denied a direct impact on basic education policies, and policy control within the system is split between the state and various local governments and agencies. The conditions for true accountability and effectiveness can only be created at the local level, with the exception of matters of funding equalization and academic goals that should be established and supported by state legislatures and universities. The business community can help achieve local control by defining exactly what schools should accomplish to prepare high school graduates to enter the world of work and by offering support for the return of authority over the educational process to local communities. (MLF)