Strategic Framework Guide: A look back to the first edition

This look back is part of our guide series to Shaping Our Future: A Strategic Framework for Texas. The Strategic Framework provides in-depth, cross-cutting data to inform key decisions about the most significant issues facing the state.

On June 18, 2020, Texas 2036 rolled out its landmark report, “Shaping Our Future: A Strategic Framework for Texas.” It included an online dashboard and a comprehensive report meant to provide in-depth, cross-cutting data to inform key decisions about the biggest issues facing the state — issues that would affect Texans’ quality of life and the strength of the economy through Texas’s bicentennial.

At the time, with 16 years until Texas turned 200, we offered policymakers and the public a vision and roadmap for Texas’ future based on three dozen aspirational goals that could chart the state’s course to economic recovery and long-term prosperity.

As we prepare to roll out the Second Edition of the Strategic Framework dashboard and comprehensive report on Wednesday, Nov. 30, take a look back at our top three explainers about the first edition:

1. Texas 2036’s Margaret Spellings and Tom Luce talk with the Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith:

2. The Dallas Morning News editorial board summarizes the opportunities and challenges they see when they reviewed the Strategic Framework.

3. Our rural board members took the opportunity to highlight what the Strategic Framework shows for rural areas of our state in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Here’s what our leadership had to say about the 2020 Strategic Framework:

“Our future hinges on how well we prepare Texans for the opportunities and challenges we know are coming. That’s why Texas 2036 — the data-driven nonprofit group we lead — created “Shaping Our Future,” a strategic framework that takes a comprehensive look at the forces and issues defining the future of Texas.” –Tom Luce, Margaret Spellings and Texas 2036’s 36 Member Board

“State leaders are concentrating on urgent needs to help Texans, restore jobs, and move forward from this pandemic and economic crisis. But as the public begins to think about what comes next, our state’s leaders can draw on the long-term data and planning found in this strategic framework to determine where Texas should focus and invest our time and resources — not just over the next year or two, but also for the next generation.” –Tom Luce, Texas 2036’s founder and chairman and a longtime Texas civic leader

“This strategic framework truly is what the people of Texas and their elected leaders make of it. If Texans and their leaders begin working to make a real difference on these vital issues — especially as we rebuild our economy and workforce — then the opportunities described in the framework are clear and exciting. These things will only become problems if we ignore what the data is showing us.” –Margaret Spellings, president and CEO of Texas 2036

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