Click here to watch "One Nation Left Behind."

In a three-pronged attack on America's "subpar" education system, an advocacy campaign called Strong American Schools -- initiated by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- intends to thrust education into the limelight of this year's presidential election. Strong American Schools' new ad campaign, "One Nation Left Behind," includes TV, radio and print ads in seven states, citing statistics that suggest American students are lagging far behind their counterparts in most other industrialized nations.

"The countries with the best schools attract the best jobs," actress Jamie Lee Curtis says in the TV spot (subscription). "And if jobs move to countries like Finland and South Korea, our children's opportunities dry up. And so does our economy."

In the similarly worded 60-second radio ad (subscription), an 8th-grade boy names off the various countries whose students are outperforming U.S. students in math and science while Curtis directs listeners to the project Web site.

Shannon Murphy, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said the effort is nonpartisan and doesn't target any one candidate. She underscored how important it is to realize the ripple effect education can have on other issues regardless of who is running the country come January.

"We believe that America's next president should make education reform a top domestic priority," Murphy said. "The nation's leaders can't solve the subprime mortgage crisis, economic downturn, what's happening on Wall Street, if they don't begin to address the fundamentals and basics, which is taking a look at America's school system."