It appears that legislators are bent on rebuilding the infrastructure of America without the realization that the distribution of work has changed, expectations for workers have evolved and America's competitive position, while still reliant on traditional infrastructure, is  not differentiated on the world stage by pot holes or shinny bridges.

1. Hire the retired or skilled out of work professionals to complement teaching, including coaching educators on what is new and different learning models from the business perspective.
2. Think holistically about facilities and drive toward a breakdown on boundaries between K-12, vocational and community college. That elementary school marked for closure may be in just the right area to create a retraining center. Think about "schools" as learning hubs, not as schools. Make them multipurpose and cross-generational.
3. Create an environment for entrepreneurship that allows public schools to compete effectively with private tutoring organizations (including funding, pay and teach incentive models).
4. Distribute learning so it isn't about an educator or a single school, but about learning in general. Actively recruit professionals, social leaders and others to do more than drop in. Build them into the curricula so they know when and how to best contribute.
5. Adopt new learning models that cross school boundaries, regional boundaries, even international boundaries. These new models will need new learning methods, many of which can be taught by mentors from business working with educators to manage time shifting, multi-organization motivation negotiations and understanding results.

This list is not exhaustive. I look forward to your ideas.

As we consider the future of education and our stimulus for the US economy, we need to design solutions that aren't about bricks and sidewalks, gymnasiums and drill teams - but about turning what is the first instance of the knowledge economy, namely education, into the driver for the next economy rather than a recipient of our balancing act between shoring up the industrial age and resistance to leaping into the future.