Here in Microsoft’s backyard, we’ve heard this story for a while. Today Investors Business Daily leads with the tale of the tech talent shortage.

The big challenge facing the U.S. software industry might not be the economy, looming fiscal cliff or growing competition. First things first — the companies are begging for qualified job candidates.

Those feature articles about unemployed college students facing a tough job market don’t apply to software engineers.

The U.S. unemployment rate remains high, with recent college graduates struggling to find full-time work.

But the number of college graduates with computer science and information science degrees has slowed the past 10 years, even as venture funds continue to pour billions of dollars into software startups.

The Seattle Times has a good editorial today addressing the problem.

Washington state faces a labor shortage in the high-tech sector. The state also has a responsibility to educate its students between the ages of 3 and 23 to prepare them for careers in science, technology, math and engineering.

The problem is government resources are limited. That’s why Microsoft is on to something.

The piece goes on to describes Microsoft’s proposal to lift the cap on visas for foreign workers, expand the green card program, and increase fees for tech firms taking advantage of the program. The higher fees would pay for STEM education. Microsoft estimates the new revenue would add $500 million annually for education programs.

Policymic also reports on the talent shortage.

On the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam, out of 34 countries, our students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. Even students in our wealthiest school districts are behind their peers from around the world. And our high school graduates are not going on to fields of study that will prepare them for careers of the future, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As a result, the U.S. will face a projected shortage of more than 200,000 workers in these critical fields by 2018.

Here’s a September story from The Hill that quotes Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith introducing the company’s solution.