President Barack Obama reminded us yesterday that, in the midst of tough economic times and the pressing day-to-day work of rebuilding today’s economy, we cannot forget tomorrow’s economy and society. This inevitably requires investing in the education of future generations. But education is at serious risk, and as the president said yesterday in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the time has come to act.

We believe, as we have said before, that this time has been here for a while, so we hope to see some action to live up to these words.

We have all heard, or know firsthand, terrifying stories of the decline of public education in the United States. Dropout rates of over 50%, like those in Los Angeles and many other urban areas, the inability of most children to read at grade level, of how one or more lost generations take refuge in gang life and end up in unemployment lines.

Obama sounded the alarm: The United States cannot continue to be a global economic leader if it does not address three major problems: the high cost of healthcare, the way we use energy, and the education we give our children.

But he said more. He said it was time to overcome closed ideological positions in which one party opposes greater oversight of teachers’ performance and the other refuses to invest in proven methods, such as early childhood education.

President Obama rejected the ideological struggle: vouchers versus the status quo in the public schools, and offered more funding in exchange for greater accountability, more support in exchange for the states or districts demonstrating the results of their programs. The approved economic stimulus package contains $5 billion for early childhood education programs. That is a good start.

The time for finger-pointing is over, said the president. It is time to hold ourselves accountable. We couldn’t agree more, especially because a good part of this future generation is in our (poorly named) minority communities.