AUSTIN, Texas, August 7, 2009 - Central Texas is poised to take advantage of the enormous opportunities presented by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the aggressive economic stimulus package Congress enacted in February. Our schools, businesses and philanthropic foundations have launched a unique partnership to attract federal investment in an unprecedented, coordinated effort to transform our education system to meet the new demands of the 21st century economy.

This effort — called the Central Texas Education Stimulus Collaborative (CTXESC) — is spearheaded by the E3 Alliance, which stands for Education Equals Economics. The name reflects this community's powerful belief that our long-term prosperity will be determined by our children's education, that enabling all children to achieve their fullest potential is a pragmatic as well as a moral obligation we all share.

The collaborative is making data-driven decisions to allocate resources toward the following goals:
— Prepare small children for academic success before they enter kindergarten.
— Eliminate achievement gaps for Hispanic, black and economically disadvantaged students.
— Graduate students who are prepared for college, career and a lifetime of learning.
— Engage all of us in achieving these goals.

If achieving these goals were easy, everyone would have done it by now. What distinguishes our region's efforts from those in other parts of the state and country is the collective commitment to achieving these goals from the educational, civic, business and political leaders in our community and the relentless focus on data collected by the E3 Alliance.

We believe this regional, collaborative effort will enhance our ability to attract ARRA grants, as will the commitment of some of this community's most generous philanthropists to leverage ARRA grants with additional private funds.

Like many Americans whose initial view of the stimulus was informed by newspaper editorials and cable news pundits, we initially questioned whether the ARRA would live up to its promise to transform our economy to meet the demands of global competition in the 21st century. Now that the money is starting to arrive, we realize that it is up to us to ensure that the money is used to increase our long-term efficiency, productivity and prosperity.

A massive capital investment in the education system could unleash in our classrooms a productivity revolution similar to the one that transformed the business sector in the 1990s. The soundness of this investment will determine whether the ARRA is remembered as a temporary sugar rush to an economy in danger of sustained decline or a critical strategic investment that borrows against the future to ensure its long-term prosperity. That's why the efforts of the Central Texas Education Stimulus Collaborative are so groundbreaking. As we plan how to spend this money, we must relentlessly demand, on behalf of our children, a high return on our investment. 

Strama, an Austin Democrat, chairs the Technology, Economic Development and Workforce Committee in the Texas House of Representatives. Harman is president and founder of the KDK-Harman Foundation.