Building Texas for the decade ahead
This is a preview of our Texas 2036 newsletter launching the 11th episode of our Future of Texas podcast with our guest, Laura Arnold, on the elements of good policymaking and building Texas for the decade ahead. To receive this weekly look at our work, sign up here.
Episode 11: Turning Data Into Policies That Work
(Left to right) David Leebron, host Brad Swail and Laura Arnold discuss data-driven policy in episode 11 of the “Future of Texas” podcast series.
Texas is home to 31 million people and one of the largest economies in the world. Sustaining that success requires the same discipline that built it: clear thinking, reliable data and the resolve to see policy through.
The Future of Texas series continues with a look at how data-driven policy can deliver for every Texan, and why long-term accountability matters more than ever.
This Week’s Podcast Guest: Laura Arnold
Laura Arnold, co-founder of Arnold Ventures, joins Texas 2036 President and CEO David Leebron to explore what it takes to build policy that will create opportunity for all Texans.
More about Laura:
Laura Arnold has spent the last two decades focused on a simple but difficult question: What policies actually improve people’s lives?
Through Arnold Ventures, she and her husband, John Arnold, have given more than $2 billion toward identifying evidence-based solutions designed to improve outcomes at scale across healthcare affordability, criminal justice, infrastructure and education.
📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube
🎧 Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
How Good Policy Is Made In Texas
Every two years, Texas lawmakers have 140 days to consider thousands of bills on hundreds of complex issues. The decisions they make shape how state agencies serve Texans, how public dollars are invested and how Texas prepares for long-term growth.
Once those decisions become law, the work often gets even more complicated. State agencies are asked to implement major policy changes in a rapidly changing environment, sometimes with limited resources, outdated data systems and little time to measure what is working.
Good policy requires more than a good idea. It takes strong data, pragmatic implementation and the discipline to measure whether solutions are working over time.
“I had one member of the Legislature … say to me the vast majority of the people who are up here really want to do good, and they don’t always have the resources and information to do that. And so we hope what we’re doing is playing a kind of third-party role as a resource and a factor in what the Legislature and the government generally is able to do.”
– David Leebron,
President and CEO
That is where organizations like Texas 2036 and Arnold Ventures play an important role. We help policymakers look beyond the current moment, understand complex challenges and create data-based solutions that ensure Texas’ future prosperity and quality of life.
A Shared Approach To Good Policymaking
Both Texas 2036 and Arnold Ventures apply rigorous research to inform the policy analysis and recommendations used by lawmakers in Austin and beyond.
At Texas 2036, that work runs the full policy pipeline:
Arnold Ventures brings the same discipline at the national level. Together, our organizations focus on quality, affordable postsecondary credentials that align with high-demand jobs and stronger career trajectories for Texans.
🧑🏫 Did you know? On May 12, Arnold Ventures and San Jacinto Community College in Houston launched a major $15.3 million partnership built around the CUNY ASAP model, one of the most rigorously evaluated community college completion programs in the country.
With more than 700,000 community college students in Texas, scaling that approach could meaningfully strengthen the state’s workforce pipeline, opportunities and long-term competitiveness.
And both work to address the drivers of rising healthcare costs, whether through Texas 2036’s state-level “healthy markets” agenda for price transparency and competition, or Arnold Ventures’ national focus on drug pricing, hospital consolidation and market accountability.
“What makes a good policy? In my estimation, [it] is a clear identification of the problem and a clear articulation of solutions that are evidence based and on the back end, a clear definition of how we measure success.”
– Laura Arnold, co-founder of Arnold Ventures
How Data Drives Our Work
Good policy begins years before it’s needed. The right questions, asked early enough to matter. Will Texas have enough water in 2036? What demographic shifts will reshape the state by 2040? What’s driving healthcare costs faster than wages?
Answering those questions takes more than instinct. It takes data, and the tools to read it well. Our team brings together statisticians, economists, demographers and specialists in causal inference and program evaluation: the methods that test what actually works in policy. Research partnerships with universities across Texas and the country extend that reach.
In the year ahead, that work will take new forms: a refreshed framework for measuring whether Texas is making real progress, dashboards that surface trends before they become crises, and new tools that put Texas data in the hands of policymakers, business leaders and the public.
👉 Our aim is simple: help Texas plan for what’s ahead, with data it can trust.
What Texas 2036 Is Doing
The next decade will depend on whether the state can respond to some of the challenges we face with effective forward looking policy solutions that will make our state the best place to live, work and raise a family.
Here’s what we’re doing to make Texas’ future bright:
- Closing the skills gap so Texas graduates are ready for the high-paying jobs of the next decade.
- Planning wisely and accountably for the state’s long-term water supply and other critical infrastructure issues as population growth, energy demand and drought put pressures on meeting growing needs.
- Addressing the root causes of increasing healthcare prices, which 85% of Texas businesses call unsustainable.
- Getting more third graders reading and doing math on grade level. Less than half currently are doing math on grade level with slightly more than half reading on grade level. That has long-term implications for workforce readiness and economic competitiveness.
Improving government performance and accountability so the state can keep pace with its scale and complexity.
Data-Driven Policy Starts With You
You’ve read where Texas 2036 is focused. Now tell us which issues should define Texas’ next decade.