Business/political activist Rudy Oeftering has turned his sights on education
Tammye Nash | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
Civic involvement is nothing new to Rudy Oeftering — from politics to serving in city government to working to better the environment for business in Texas. Now, though, he is, as he said, “turning my civic and leadership skills to greener pastures” through his involvement with Texans Can Academies.
Oeftering dates his civic involvement back to the early 1990s, starting in 1994 with his role as co-chair of the Ed Harrison for Congress Campaign. He served on the Lancaster City Council from 1995 to 1998, focusing then on a “pro-business agenda to promote city growth” among other initiatives.
Beginning in 1994, he served on the boards and as board chair of a variety of chambers of Commerce, including the Lancaster Chamber, the Best Southwest Chamber and the Desoto Chamber.
In 2006, Oeftering took his business focus statewide when he was appointed to the board of the Texas Association of Business and Chamber of Commerce. Over the years he held several offices on that board, including chairman. And in 2015, he co-founded an organization called Texas Competes, which focuses on keeping the Texas business environment thriving and competitive by, in part, working against discriminatory laws that would cause many businesses to turn away from the Lone Star State.
“I insisted that the organization be by business and for business,” Oeftering explained. “It had to be seen as a legitimate business organization, not just a front for an LGBT-focused organization. It had to be seen as an organization working simply to make the business case for LGBT protections” in the state.
That approach, he continued, “was the only way we got the support we did.” And while it had a slow start, once larger companies like Dell and organizations like the Dallas convention and visitors bureau and the Houston Super Bowl host committee signed on, “we saw a huge difference. Now, just about any business that is asked will sign on to support our very simple pledge.”
One of Texas Competes’ main efforts this year was focused on defeating the so-called “bathroom bill” that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed so aggressively in the legislative session and the following special session. Even though it was defeated in all its incarnations, Oeftering said, just the effort to enact such legislation had a toll on the state.
“We have already proven that just considering the bill lost the state about $100,000 in tourism and conventions,” he said.
Oeftering also was involved in Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBT Republican organization, and worked to get the state GOP to officially recognize the LGBT group. He chose to step away from party politics, however, when he saw the Texas party being taken over by right-right idealogues.
Now, Oeftering sees his role as chair of the board for Texans Can as a new and unique opportunity to improve the state’s business climate by improving educational opportunities for at-risk youth.
Oeftering first joined the Texans Can board in April 2013. He was named board chair when Delia Jasso resigned to focus on her new duties with DART. His work with Texans Can has quickly become a labor of love.
“Texans Can is probably the most important thing I have been involved with in a very long time,” he said.
Texans Can Academies is rooted in Freedom Ministries, a nonprofit founded in 1976 by Grant East to work with juvenile offenders. In 1985, Freedom Ministries established Dallas Can Academy to provide remedial education for juvenile offenders.
Dallas Can expanded the following year to offer education services to high school dropouts and non-adjudicated youth, and 10 years later, in 1996, Texans Can became one of the first 20 charter schools in Texas. The name changed to Texans Can Academies in 1998 when new schools opened in other Texas cities, and today, Texans Can offers 13 schools across the state.
The organization’s goal, Oeftering explained, is to reach out to high school dropouts and bring them back into the educational system, to identify their current levels of academic performance, and then work to improve those levels.
“The average reading level at intake is third grade,” Oeftering said. “How did anybody ever get into high school reading at only a third grade level?! I mean, if you read at a third grade level and someone puts a 10th grade level science book in your hands … Hell! I’d quit too!”
The organization’s goal, he said, is to teach these students how to read and how to think. Those skills will give them the key to open just about any door opportunity they might knock on.
“Social studies classes, math classes — every class they are in is a reading/writing/thinking class,” he said. “If they can read and they can think, then they can function well in society.”
Right now, Oeftering said, Texas ranks last in the nation in terms of number of residents with a high school diploma at just under 80 percent.
“We are the worst in the nation. Between 33,000 and 35,000 high school students drop out every year in this state.
“But Texans Can has the solution. We have it right now. It’s just a question of scalability,” Oeftering said. “We have to scale it up and still keep control of the quality and keep it sustainable. If we can figure out exactly how to do that, how to ramp this up, then we can serve every one of those dropouts. That’s my goal.”
As chairman of the board, Oeftering is Texans Can’s biggest cheerleader. It is, he said, “the coolest civic thing I have ever done.
“Everyone on our board, on our executive staff — everyone sees that we’ve got this figured out,” he said. “We just have to keep them in school and teach them to read and to think. Being able to be part of this solution to such an important problem is worth every bit of my time and my effort. I will tell you that for sure.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 13, 2017.