Help Texas 2036 build consensus, shape the future
Texas is a success story because we are never satisfied and always ready for what is next. Our innovation and focus created a robust economy, making Texas an inviting place for business and families alike to come, grow and pursue opportunity.
But even a glance at the future reveals the challenges that come with success: more students who need a good education, more cars and trucks on our roads, more demands on our health care system and our water supply. These are complex, lasting challenges — they are not easily solved within a political system driven by the tyranny of the crisis du jour.
To write Texas’ success story into the future, our state needs a laserlike focus on what that future will demand. And that’s why Texas 2036 is here. Born from the guiding vision of Tom Luce, one of our state’s most thoughtful and accomplished civic leaders, our organization is pursuing long-term, data-driven research and strategies to secure Texas’ continued prosperity.
Luce created Texas 2036 with the state’s future — and especially its bicentennial in 17 years — as our focus. We believe Texas leaders should make decisions based on credible data and research about who we are and where we are going. We also believe Texas needs a results-oriented approach to policymaking that is driven by facts and analysis instead of short-term politics.
Our team has assembled data and research that reveal where we stand on key metrics and how far we need to go. For example:
• Our population will grow by 10 million people in less than two decades.
• There is a wide gap between the number of Texans who have a two- or four-year degree and the number of degreed Texans needed to fulfill 21st-century job requirements.
• Texans are spending more and more time on the road due to increasing urban congestion.
• If a drought of record hit today, Texas would not be able to meet about one quarter, or 4.8 million acre-feet, of our water needs.
• Texans face an almost 7 percent increase in health care costs every year, while outcomes are not improving at the same pace.
• Broadband access — a fact of life in Texas cities — remains out of reach in huge swaths of rural areas.
With this foundation of data in place, Texas 2036 is moving into a more visible phase. Soon, we will announce new members of our large and growing board of directors. We will share key data resources that should help Texans engage in better discussions about what matters to our future. And on Saturday, we will host a series of free public discussions on Congress Avenue in Austin as part of the Texas Tribune Festival.
But our work will succeed only if it brings more Texans into the process, whether you are a Texan by birth or you got here as soon as you could, as many of us did. Welcoming newcomers has made Texas more successful, and those who arrive in future years will have much to contribute. One of Texas 2036’s guiding principles is that we need to build consensus around priorities that support the aspirations of nearly 30 million people who live in this state today and the millions more who are coming.
And data is the conversation starter, guiding Texans, the business community and our elected leaders as we work to expand our prosperity and bring more people into it.
Now is the moment to hear from our state’s diverse collection of voices — people driven not by the next election or fast-shifting political winds, but by the long-term interests of their fellow Texans. Our state needs a large, durable constituency that will be a constant amid population growth and changing public opinion polls — demanding that public officials take action on longer-term goals, and then supporting them when they do.
We believe there is enough common ground, and certainly enough data, to bring Texans together around a clear and inspiring vision of what we want this state to be by the time we celebrate our 200th birthday — and well beyond.
We encourage you to join us today by visiting texas2036.org, texting JOINTX to 52886, and following us on social @Texas2036.