Steve Murdock has worn many hats over the years. Gov. Rick Perry appointed him as the first official state demographer of Texas. He ran the U.S. Census Bureau for President George W. Bush. He now teaches at Rice University.

But you might simply call him the fortuneteller of Texas. Over the past three decades, he has predicted, quite accurately, the size and diversity of our future population. Murdock uses spreadsheets to see the future. He estimates he's presented them 250 times throughout the state over the past decade.

Out of a dizzying display of data emerges the story of Texas, a tale he tells with a broad smile but with a sense of urgency .

By 2010, Anglos comprised a smaller proportion of our population than in 2000, while the share of other racial and ethnic groups rose. From 2000 to 2010, non-white Texans accounted for 89 percent of our growth. About a third of the children in the state are white, less than 20 percent in the largest metro areas.

Forty-eight percent of Texans younger than 18 are Hispanic. You could build a 20-foot wall on the southern border or import every techie from California, but it wouldn't make a dent in the projections. Murdock explains that black and Hispanic children will largely determine the future of Texas.

Millions of Texans will write their own individual stories, but the story of our state as a whole will depend on breaking the link between income and demographics.

If we expand opportunities and raise the income levels in these groups, we can ensure a strong economy with the revenue to maintain investments in cops, schools, roads and hospitals.

If we want to grow our economy, Murdock says, we must improve the education of our future workforce.

In Texas, 12 percent of Hispanic adults older than 25 have a bachelor's degree. Among white adults in our state, the rate is nearly three times higher.

Murdock says that college financial aid and early childhood education are key to changing our trajectory. We could consider shifting public school pre-K from half-day to full-day, boosting child care quality, and expanding home visiting programs that assist new parents. No single strategy will be enough. If kids in low-wage families do homework on an empty stomach, for instance, or struggle to sleep well in crowded, substandard housing, it undermines our education investments. As long as they face tougher discipline in schools and the juvenile justice system, compared to other kids who make the same mistakes, those children will veer further off track. Regarding these demographic changes, Murdock says policymakers and business leaders are moving from denial to acceptance, focusing more on what is needed to address the Texas Challenge, as he calls it.

How they answer that question, and how quickly, will determine the future of our state.