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Tucson business leaders these days worry about another issue amid a slumping economy and a cooling housing market: the quality of Southern Arizona schools.

While taxes and real-estate costs have long been bread-and-butter concerns for business growth, education has risen to the top of the list, local and national leaders say.

The issue is twofold, they say: The quality of schooling drives a capable and educated work force, but the perception of bad schools may keep away families that otherwise might have moved to Tucson for jobs. The latter is particularly troubling for those in the high-tech and aerospace sectors, who are struggling to find skilled workers as retirements loom for engineers.

"We need to move it from a heart to a wallet issue," said Joe Snell, president and CEO of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. In other words, he said, Tucsonans should realize there are tangible economic effects of a poorly educated city.

Local school districts have been making strides in developing more vocational classes, most notably forming the Joint Technological Education District to offer more classes to students and to try to build a better-skilled work force. But a months-long investigation by the Star showed that work force problems may be even more systemic, with thousands of students being pushed forward in Tucson-area schools each year without mastering basic skills.

Business leaders have begun to see the squeeze of underprepared students. Tom Campbell, president of A&M Personnel Services, Ltd., said he's at his wits' end trying to find front-office workers.

"They're just not hungry to do the job and do it right," he said.

The costs are hitting home. An October 2007 report by the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education showed a $7.1 billion loss of lifetime wages for the nearly 28,000 dropouts in Arizona last year. State households would have gained $1.4 billion in accumulated wealth if those household heads had finished school, the report said.

"We used to talk about competition in terms of other states, but now we're in a global competition," said Linda Noonan, managing director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. "We really have to make sure that our kids can compete with each other in the United States, but also those coming out of education systems globally."

The United States is becoming a "knowledge-based economy," said John Brown, economic-development manager for the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. That means that "low-paid jobs are migrating to other countries," he said, and that "other countries are being able to supply workers — for what low-literacy people are doing here — at a lower cost."

Some local leaders, including Snell, also see the problem as a quality-of-life issue.

"The endgame," he said, "is to graduate human beings who can earn a sustainable wage."

Business executives say the community should be more involved in pivotal decisions about education, and that local companies could play a role in curbing problems of underachievement.

"That level of importance needs to permeate the culture if we're going to make substantive change," said Roger Vogel, CEO of the local SEBRA biotech firm and co-chair of the Pima County Business Education Roundtable.

But some job-training programs haven't been fully taken advantage of. The Joint Technological Education District, approved by voters in November 2006, uses property-tax money to pay for job-training programs in high schools. So far, few businesses have stepped up to be partners with schools. Improvements, Brown said, will require a major change in how graduates-to-be value their schooling — and their future.

"Maybe we need to do a better job of selling education," he said. "Tell them: 'If you drop out of high school, you just kissed away three-quarters of a million dollars in future earnings potential. Don't make stupid decisions, because you're giving away that much money.' "