I think in general the State of Texas is soft. Great economy, plenty of $$, jobs..the pool of workers is limitless. You drive around north Texas and the state bird should be the crane, there is so much development. Kids in general in Texas grow up soft. Everywhere you turn, there is a new shop, building, school...shit is all new and shiny pretty much in every city in Texas.
Now juxtapose that with surrounding states and the Southeast (our new partners) in general, where I live now, after having lived in TX 15 years. The south is not shiny, new or flourishing economically. Sure there are pockets, but mostly its lower middle class, lower socioeconomic areas that are feeding kids to schools that have programs with less resources than us, but better culture and better overall programs. The culture at Texas is gentrified, we wanted it that way, remember "we are the Joneses" and the "we are Texas" b/s? NOONE says that in other parts of the country about themselves. The culture at UT is that we are better than everyone and by proxy, we don't have to grind, like other places.