For the past two decades, India and other outsourcing destinations have been churning out millions of graduates who have been trained in both old technologies and the latest ones. Meanwhile, in North America, the number of people who prepare for a life in IT continues to fall. We stopped training people to look after all the legacy code that runs our companies, and we didn't think about what the outcome would look like.

It looks like we're trying to solve a human resources problem overseas. That's what it looks like.

The typical U.S. IT shop hasn't done anything interesting in years. Consultants have done all the heavy lifting. No wonder the top third of graduates go to work in the vendor community!

To keep IT jobs at home, it's going to take more than outcry and protest. It's going to take hard-nosed action. We're going to have to put our old friends to sleep.

Here's what we have to do to take charge: