{"id":2179,"date":"2025-11-04T12:26:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2025-11-04T21:33:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:33:18","slug":"we-are-smart-enough-to-invest-in-our-kids-lets-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/we-are-smart-enough-to-invest-in-our-kids-lets-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"We are smart enough to invest in our kids – Let’s do it!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We are Smart Enough to Invest in our Kids -- Let's Do It! <\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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By Ashley Bean Thornton

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This article in the Waco Trib cranked up my blood pressure about 10 points: At 5 schools, Waco ISD sets turnaround plans into motion after failing accountability scores.\u00a0<\/a>
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If you don’t subscribe to the Trib, and you can’t get through the pay wall, it’s about how a handful of Waco ISD schools are performing so \u201cpoorly\u201d that if they don\u2019t \u201cturn it around\u201d the State of Texas will take over the school district and work some kind of magic to make things better.

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If they know the magic, why haven\u2019t they already shared it??? Why wait?

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Seven elementary schools are mentioned in the article \u2013 so let\u2019s just think about elementary school for a minute.

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Imagine two 4th<\/sup> grade teachers.\u00a0 They both have classes of 22 kids.

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In one class, 6 of the 22 kids are economically at risk.\u00a0 In the other, 19 of the 22 kids are economically at risk.\u00a0 Which teacher do you think is going to have a tougher time getting the kids in her class to meet state standards?

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I think it will be the teacher with the 19 at-risk kids.

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I think everybody reading this tirade can understand that not having enough money to live on is stressful.\u00a0 That\u2019s why they call these kids \u201cat risk.\u201d

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Think about the last time you were stressed about something.\u00a0 Did you say things you shouldn\u2019t have said?\u00a0 Did you find it hard to concentrate?\u00a0 Did it make you just want to take a nap?\u00a0 Did it make you more focused on your own needs than what was going on all around you?\u00a0 Did it just make you mad and hard to live with? That\u2019s what it does to kids too \u2013 and they don\u2019t have the advantage of years of practice at how to deal with it.

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Working with 5 or 6 kids in a class who are dealing with this kind of stress is challenging.\u00a0 What about 19?

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That\u2019s the difference between what a teacher at Mountainview Elementary in Waco ISD faces every day compared to what a teacher at a neighboring more financially secure school faces every day.\u00a0 At Mountainview, 86% of the kids are economically at risk.\u00a0 And, of the seven WISD elementary schools mentioned in this article, Mountainview is the richest one!\u00a0 The others range from 93% to 99% economically at risk.\u00a0 At J. H. Hines Elementary there are literally only two kids in the whole school who are NOT economically at risk – and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are about $5 over the limit.

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Is it really surprising that these kids are scoring lower on the (dumb!) STAAR test?\u00a0 It shouldn\u2019t be.

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And yet, our state legislature doesn\u2019t seem to get it.\u00a0 Their solution is basically to tell the schools to try harder – no new resources, just try harder – or we will have TEA take over.

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We need a different approach.

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I think public schools are good for all kids, and the really big benefit of public school for our society is when it helps kids who are growing up with economic stress to become adults who are not in the same kind of stress.

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Public schools can help make that happen if we are willing to make the investment in the schools and kids that need it.\u00a0

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Public schools can’t get rid of all the stress in these kids’ lives, but we can take that stress into account, and we can take steps to lessen the problems it causes.\u00a0<\/p>

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These schools need smaller class sizes.\u00a0 They need pre-K for all the kids. They need experienced teachers who are trained to work with kids who are dealing with trauma and stress at home.\u00a0 They need counselors.\u00a0 They need wrap-around services to help parents take advantage of the resources available.\u00a0 They need research-based behavior protocols that help kids learn to manage their emotions and behavior.\u00a0 They need afterschool programs to provide enrichment and help with homework.\u00a0 These programs need to be solid and on-going, not dependent on grants that run out every 2 or 3 years.

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With the right kind of support these kids can flourish – and that means our communities flourish.

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All these things cost more \u2013 significantly more.\u00a0 I understand that.\u00a0 I think if we were smart, we would make that investment because the return to our communities would be enormous. \u00a0These \u201cunderperforming\u201d (really under-resourced) schools are full of smart kids.\u00a0 We need those little brains to live up to their potential.\u00a0 We cannot afford to waste this opportunity while they are in public school \u2013 it\u2019s our best chance to give them a big push toward becoming the kind of adults that will make our communities thrive!

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Let\u2019s make that investment. I intend to work for that if you elect me.

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But if we are not willing to do that, let\u2019s at least not keep pretending it\u2019s the schools who are failing.\u00a0 Our educators are working their butts off.\u00a0 \u00a0Instead of helping them, we are just piling more weight on their shoulders.\u00a0 We are smarter than that.

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I’m Ashley Bean Thornton, and I am running for the Texas House of Representatives, House District 56.\u00a0 If you like what I have to say, and you live in HD 56, I hope you will vote for me in November 2026.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I hope you will subscribe to my newsletter: https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/stay-in-the-loop\/.<\/a>\u00a0 Thank you!\u00a0 Let’s build the Texas we want to live in!

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We are Smart Enough to Invest in our Kids — Let’s Do It! By Ashley Bean Thornton This article in the Waco Trib cranked up my blood pressure about 10 points: At 5 schools, Waco ISD sets turnaround plans into motion after failing accountability scores.\u00a0 \u00a0 If you don’t subscribe to the Trib, and you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/waco-isd.png","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":2195,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":636,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":344,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"http:\/\/h","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-schools","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2233,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions\/2233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ashleybeanthornton.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}