Texas 2036 talks big picture

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May 19—With a growing population and changing demographics, representatives from the public policy organization Texas 2036 has hit the road to talk about tackling issues like education, infrastructure, healthcare and water.

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is president and CEO of Texas 2036. She visited the Odessa American Tuesday with Executive Vice President A.J. Rodriguez.

Texas 2036 was founded by Tom Luce, a former gubernatorial candidate, Ross Perot's lawyer and a social entrepreneur who has made a big difference in Texas "in a lot of quiet ways," Spellings said.

"We have taken it upon ourselves to really start to elevate data and the facts to try to get policymakers educated about not only next week, or the next week, but the future around infrastructure, education and health and justice issues and then uniquely, how do we run this $250 billion dollar enterprise we call Texas and government performance issues," Spellings said.

Over the last two decades, Texas' economy has outpaced the nation, but a majority of these jobs have been low-to-middle wage jobs. Young Texans are not prepared to compete for good jobs, according to Texas 2036 data.

Seventy percent of fourth-graders cannot read at grade level; 60 percent of fourth graders cannot perform math at grade level and 32 percent of Texas high school students obtain a post-secondary credential within six years of graduation, the data said.

According to Texas 2036 information, persistent achievement gaps cut across ethnicity and income; nearly half of Texas workers are not native Texans; and newcomers hold higher levels of education than native Texans.

The populations of Midland and Andrews counties are expected to grow by 73 percent and 108 percent over the next 15 years, respectively, compared to 27 percent state growth, the data details.

The Permian Basin workforce development area is rapidly growing in size and diversity. Hispanic Texans became a plurality of the workforce in the past decade and this trend will "grow dramatically" over the next 15 years, the data shows.

"It's only 3% of statewide students that are going on after high school to post secondary achievement. We're projecting by 2036 that we need 70% of those individuals to have those kinds of opportunities and credentials. It's not just a four-year degree or two, but it's other stackable credentials over time as well," Rodriguez said.

In this area, Spellings said jobs like manufacturing, plumbing, welding and oilfield are high-tech.

"It's not just a high school diploma these days," she said.

People may think they can finish high school or not and make a lot of money.

"It's OK in the short run, but it doesn't look very good once you progress in your life," Spellings said.

Spellings and Rodriguez were heading to a lunch in Midland at the invitation of Tracee Bentley, president and CEO of the Permian Strategic Partnership and a Texas 2036 board member. PSP Chairman and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans also will be there, she said.

"... We have enjoyed a real collaborative and cooperative relationship with them (PSP) because we're very much in sync on public policy things like broadband and education and health and so on. So she invited us. A.J. leads the Texas Roadshow, so we're trying to take our show on the road literally," Spellings said.

Rodriguez said this was going to be their eighth region visit.

"We've gone to 15 cities, have visited with more than 600 folks throughout the state," Rodriguez said.

Spellings said they are trying to build "civic demand" for their work.

"We've been visiting with Chamber of Commerce executives, business community folks, community organizers, elected officials. You name it we're open to visit with every single person because our constituency is every single Texan in terms of the type of civic demand that we're trying to build for these issues that Margaret mentioned — education, health care, natural resources, infrastructure, justice and safety and government performance. Those are our six pillars. We're pretty widespread in terms of our focus and what we're doing," Rodriguez said.

Spellings said as they travel around, people are "starving for another way, for leadership around the big things."

"People are talking about what they care about, as opposed to, as I like to say sometimes majoring in the minors in Austin. So again, we're trying to build this civic demand for infrastructure, broadband, education, etc.," Spellings said.