What would you do to help your school?

Would you do as much as this third grade girl?

To 8-year-old Elodie Giles, art class isn’t a budget extra. It’s what she looks forward to every week. She’s just not certain she can look forward to it next year.

Giles may be just a third grader but she is wise enough to know that budget cuts will cut into what she likes best.

It is one of the possibilities as her school, Houston ISD’s Travis Elementary School, looks to cut $200,000 from its budget.

Giles doesn’t want the cuts to be that severe and she wanted to help.

“I get $6 every week,” she said.

She has to give at least a dollar of it to a needy charity.

“I was thinking about Travis and how good a school it was. Then I thought about how it was losing money and then I thought I could donate my money,” Giles said.

The $20 she saved up was put in an envelope for the principal.

“It says, ‘Money for Travis, for whatever you need it for,'” Giles said she wrote on the envelope.

“And then it says ‘I love my school. Love, Elodie Giles,'” Travis Elementary School principal Suzy Walker said. “Every $20 makes a difference.”

Not from one person, it doesn’t. But if there were a few more people willing to pay a little more to maintain a high level of performance at schools like Elodie’s (which, full disclosure, is my kids’ school, too; Elodie’s mom and I are both on the PTA board), it would make a huge difference. The really sad thing is that we’re not even going to be asked about it. Here’s the video of Elodie’s story, which has been picked up by the Huffington Post:

Whatever else happens, let me just say thank you, Elodie. You’ve got more leadership in you than just about everyone in Austin.

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