ORLANDO--An alarm about American society that wouldn't shut off began and ended the annual gathering of public school leaders here: do your part to prevent a society of haves and have-nots or face upheaval and decline.

As a keynoter, the noted economist Lester Thurow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the falling income of 60 percent of the population would destabilize more than the economy. Then, as the final speaker, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo exhorted his audience to address the income disparity for moral reasons.

Both said that the only way to turn things around is to make the American worker more productive. And the only way to do that is to improve the education of those going into the workforce.

Referring to the income gap, Thurow told the conference of the American Association of School Administrators that "your job is not just to help us maintain our standard of living. The question is: are you going to ensure democracy?" The only possible economic base from now on will be brain power, Thurow said. The American worker must be technically superior or be replaced by either cheaper or smarter workers in the global economy, he said. He used a sports metaphor to get over his point. "We are playing American-style football that is labor intensive, highly bureaucratic, and slow," he said. "The rest of the world is playing another style--soccer--that is fluid and fast and doesn't have a lot of regulations."

"Imagine how strong we could be if the 60 percent of our population receiving falling wages were highly skilled and if those on welfare and in prisons were working productively," Cuomo told the conference. "Education is gold," he said.

Cuomo also attacked leadership by polls and said "someone has to make sure people get the whole truth." Ever since the 1970s, he said, "the rich have been convincing the middle class that their problem was the poor." The Clinton Administration, Cuomo said, had made a good start on addressing the education needs of all children, but he stressed "it is only a beginning." It will remain empty rhetoric, he added, if the resources needed to help all children achieve like the politicians want are not there for them.

Thurow and Cuomo took slightly different views on the education standards movement. The economist suggested that there be a voluntary national exam equal to what students in other advanced countries take; a high school graduate then would have a diploma from the state and a national diploma. Cuomo endorsed higher standards, although not federal ones. And he insisted that unless the Administration and Congress provide sufficient resources, "we will set up a new generation for failure."