TBEC develops its Policy Goal Statements through extensive research and extended dialogue among business and education supporters from within and outside the organization. Once adopted by the Board of Directors, the recommendations defined in these statements become official objectives for TBEC advocacy.

TBEC sends newly adopted policy goal statements to Texas policy makers and engages in a dialogue with them seeking to help set the agenda for future legislative sessions. State leaders have come to understand that TBEC’s recommendations are credible because they reflect the determination of business leaders to drive public education improvement and the concerns of educators that state policy be constructive and can be implemented effectively at the local level.

Over the years, TBEC’s recommendations have helped to shape the direction of Texas education policy in important ways. Because of the success of public education in Texas, the organization has gained widespread recognition as one of the most influential and effective business-sponsored education reform initiatives in the nation.

A RAND report commissioned by the National Goals Panel, Exploring Rapid Achievement Gains in North Carolina and Texas (Grissmer, D. and Flanagan, A., November, 1998), stated that “In Texas in the early 1980’s it began with the Perot Commission, and later the Texas Business and Education Coalition” (p. ii). The report continued, “These organizations provided a forum to discuss education reform issues and forge compromises among concerned groups that underlay subsequent legislation. Developing these systems in both states was a long and arduous process, and the business community in both states was the single most stable, persistent, and long-term influence for the reform agenda implemented”.