History

This initiative was born out of a series of conversations held in the mid 2000's between and beyond the members of the Austin Area Research Organization (AARO). AARO is an organization of business and community leaders committed to the economic and social well-being of Central Texas. AARO is one of the few truly regional organizations, and its 75 members are known as "the keepers of a dynamic strategic vision for Central Texas, and facilitators of projects important to that strategic vision."

Members of the AARO Education and Higher Education Committees have guided their efforts over the past few years based on the outcomes of a 2003 AARO "Closing the Gaps" report for Central Texas that concluded that: "Failure to enroll an additional 60,000 residents [in college] by the year 2015 would ultimately culminate by the year 2040 in a $4,000 (6 percent) decrease in household income, costing our community $2.4 billion annually."

After grappling for many years at the state, district and school levels to try to impact fundamental positive change in the realm of education, a number of AARO members expressed frustration that we had made little real impact in closing the identified gaps to college and career success. Thus a conversation ensued: Were we approaching this the wrong way? Perhaps if-as we do with transportation, water availability, and other core community issues-we address education as a regional system ,and combine our resources and combine our resources and leadership capacity to unify and optimize that system, we can have a much more sustainable and scaleable impact. Thus the E³ Alliance was born and has become the Central Texas version of a P-16 Council.

The research, background information and proposed approaches on this Web site were captured and vetted primarily by E³ Alliance Executive Director Susan Dawson. However, they contain significant input, ideas, thoughts, and criticisms of many community leaders within and beyond the bounds of AARO, provided over the course of many months and many dozens of discussions. All of those providing input to the thought process could never be included here, but primary contributors include: Ed Sharpe, Carmel Borders, Pat Hayes, Earl Maxwell, Marina Walne, Betsy Abell, Tom Cedel, Denise Trauth, Richard Halpin, Ben Kramer, Allyson Peerman, Pat Forgione, Steve Kinslow, Larry Earvin, Sylvia Acevedo, Kerry Tate, Martha Smiley, Ingrid Taylor, Pete Winstead and others.