²ÝÁñÉçÇø

ON the surface, we Washingtonians look like fairly educated people. Our wheat farmers in the Palouse pack more computers and satellite connections into their tractors than a spacecraft. College-trained experts tend orchards in Wenatchee and vineyards in Walla Walla. Legions of engineers invent and build new products for our cutting-edge employers like Microsoft, Boeing and hundreds of other enterprises.

But that's not the whole picture. Under that veneer we Washingtonians are among the less-educated Americans. We're strikingly less educated than our competitors in many countries. We live on imported talent. A Google executive tells me the company has more Russian engineers working in Seattle than in Moscow.