The economic crisis is taking its toll on all sorts of things, and it turns out Social Security and Medicare are no different. The annual trustees' report on the two programs finds the outlook for the two programs has become substantially worse, largely because more people unemployed means fewer people paying in.

Medicare is in worse shape, by far. The trustees conclude that Medicare is already paying out more than it takes in, and that its trust fund reserves will be exhausted in 2017. Social Security has more time – it won't start drawing on its trust fund until 2016, and its reserves are projected to last until 2037.

This report takes its place in a long line of trustee reports warning that these programs can't be sustained. The surprising thing, in fact, is how little the fundamental issues have changed. Every year the trustees move the dates around, but the conclusion never changes: the combination of skyrocketing health care costs and an aging population make these programs financially fragile.

So far, however, very little's been done to solve it. As a nation, we don't take a hard look at the options – and there are options out there. Nor do we have the kind of discussions needed to really bring the public into this debate.

At Facingup.org, you can make a start on both. Our nonpartisan Students Face Up to the Nation's Finances curriculum offers easy-to-understand choices and tools for holding classroom discussions around this problem. Colleges around the country are already using the curriculum. After all, today's students are the ones who'll have to live with whatever decisions we make now. And the time to act is getting short.