The question of how well we are prepared to handle its effects will be answered when the Legislature convenes in January. The Tribune Editorial Board, judging from past experience, worries that legislators will keep their heads in the sand, even as the wave washes over them, and us.

The State Board of Education says it will need about $70 million just to fund student growth. In other words, simply to maintain the status quo. Legislators will probably find that amount, as state revenues are likely to produce another budget surplus.

The problem is that ponying up only enough funds to keep our heads above water doesn't really maintain the status quo. With Latino children making up about a quarter of the new students and more English-language learners and low-income children than ever before, running in place will put the state ever-further behind.

The changing school demographics mean Utah's overcrowded classrooms will have more children who need extra help to learn the basics. The huge achievement gap between white and minority students - a 20-point difference in test scores - already testifies to our failure to meet their needs. Other evidence: a 50 percent dropout rate among minority students and a high percentage who fail the high school exit exam among those who stay long enough to take the test.

In general, the higher the school dropout rate, the greater demand for social and welfare assistance and, sadly, more police and prison space.

Many studies point to the same solutions if these trends are to be reversed: all-day kindergarten, tutoring and remediation, programs to zero in on underachieving first- through third-graders in reading and math, smaller class sizes to give at-risk children more one-on-one time with teachers.

The state has a constitutional responsibility to provide public education for all its children, not only its white, middle- and upper-class children whose parents can augment Utah's lowest per-pupil funding in the nation.

If we fail in that, the effects will swell into an even more destructive tsunami of long-term human and economic costs that we cannot afford.