CHARLESTON -- Pick 100 grade school students in the United States at random. Odds are only 68 of them will graduate from high school on time, and of those only 18 will earn an associate degree within three years of graduation or a bachelor's degree within six.

That's bad news in an age when jobs that require no more than a high school education, such as manufacturing jobs, are disappearing, and 85 percent of jobs require some sort of post-secondary education.

"If you think 18 percent of this country can carry the other 82 percent, you're smoking something not allowable," former U.S. Sen. Bill Brock, R-Tenn., told gathered attendees at the Governor's Summit on Global Competitiveness at the University of Charleston Oct. 29.

Just how the nation -- or West Virginia at least -- can reverse that trend was the focus of the summit. For Brock and other experts, a large part of the solution rested with the teachers schools recruit. But public schools are having a hard time finding teachers to teach science, math and other critical areas where the private sector pays far better.

"We created a workplace ... that treats them like blue-collar workers and pays them less," Brock said. "It won't work."

Pay only was one reform mentioned at the summit, although one that has been a sore point for the state's teachers. Starting public school teachers in the state make among the lowest salaries in their field at an average of slightly more than $26,000.

But for Brock, who currently chairs a committee on job skill development for the National Center on Education and the Economy, and other speakers, pay wasn't the only change that needed to be done. The question is whether there is the public will to make the necessary reforms.

"Almost everybody in the country wants their schools to be better and almost nobody wants them to be different," said Joe Graba, co-founder of the nonprofit Education Evolving.

His organization's doesn't suggest simply paying teachers more. It proposes make teaching a professional practice like law or medicine and give those teachers decision-making authority over what takes place in a school.

"We've never allowed teachers to be effectively involved in the decision-making process," Graba said.

Roughly 50 to 60 teacher-led schools exist throughout the nation, most of them charter schools. No charter schools currently exist in West Virginia, thanks in large part to opposition from teachers' unions and because of no clear rules for setting them up in state law.

However, the state Legislature, at Gov. Joe Manchin's request, passed legislation allowing the creation of "school innovation zones" where public school districts could experiment with education models and policies not spelled out in state law.

Innovation zones may or may not allow the creation of teacher-led schools, but Graba said results from the handful of schools that do exist show improvements in both student and teacher behavior. Teachers manage budgets, hire personnel and make other decisions allowing them to become more involved in the day-to-day operations of the school.

"When that happens you get major changes in the behavior of the teachers," he said. "You also get changes in the culture of the schools."

The United States at one time had among the highest number of high school and college graduates among the industrialized nations, but those days have long passed.

A crucial difference may be how other countries treat their teachers compared to the U.S. For example, teaching is a highly-respected profession in Finland and not necessarily the easiest job to get into, noted John Wilson, executive director of the National Education Association.

"They have very clear standards and they prepare their teachers to do that," he said.