Focal Points

We hear over and over about the federal bailout of the financial industry. But what tends not to be said is that it is our tax dollars–yours and mine–that will be doing the work. A friend of mine mentioned a novel proposal: the executives of these financial companies who are getting federal dollars should not make any more than the $400,000 that we pay the President of the United States. After all, the President works for the American citizen, and now the American citizen is bailing out the high-flying executives of these financial-service companies that squandered billions of dollars. It makes sense. In fact, I’d say it should be $399,999–$1 less than what the President makes.

Of course, not all the executives leading these institutions today were responsible for getting us into the current mess. In fact, most of them were not. But excessive executive compensation was one of the symptoms of the problem, and this is one way of getting it back into line. It also doesn’t mean that there can’t be bonuses pegged to performance (maybe the President should have that too?)–but it is precisely performance in this new federally supported universe that we need to monitor.

The incoming President already seems to be earning his salary, as Justin Fox and Massimo Calabresi make clear in their smart piece in this week’s issue about Barack Obama’s economic plan. Speaking of economics, TIME and FORTUNE will present the Fortune 500 Forum in Washington Dec. 1-3, featuring, among others, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Sheila Bair. The conference will bring high-ranking executives of America’s leading companies together with top policymakers, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, to talk about the intersection between the government and the economy. As we have been reporting week in and week out, this is issue No. 1 and it is not going away.

President-elect Obama did not list education among the top three priorities of his new Administration. Certainly, the economy is job No. 1, but to make the economy grow again and to sustain America’s leadership in the world, education must become a major focus. A good education has been the greatest antipoverty program in U.S. history–and Obama himself is a prime example of it. More than factories or financial institutions, our greatest capital is human capital: the American people. It is hard to sustain American greatness when only three-quarters of our children are graduating from high school.

Education has been a primary commitment of TIME’s, and this is our eighth education cover in the past 2 1/2 years. Amanda Ripley’s powerful portrait of Washington, D.C., public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee offers a blueprint for helping revive urban schools. It’s a story that should be instructive not only to teachers and students but also to President-elect and Mrs. Obama, who have said they will take a personal interest in education and the Washington community. All of us should welcome their involvement.

At this timely meeting in Washington, policymakers and CEOs will wrestle with the No. 1 issue–the economy– and attempt to forecast what’s in store for 2009 and beyond

Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR