No one knows for sure when Stand for Children abandoned its original mission of advocating for public schools and seeking more equitable funding.
But by 2011, Stand for Children had become a handmaiden of the hedge fund managers and super-rich, promoting their agenda of privatization. Its founder, Jonah Edelman, boasted at the Aspen Ideas Festival of how he had outsmarted the teachers’ unions and had bought up the best lobbyists. He worked with like-minded legislators in Illinois to pass legislation to take away teachers’ job protections. The legislation said that the Chicago Teachers Union would need a 75% approval to strike, and Edelman was certain this would never happen.
He sat side by side with an equity investor from Chicago as he boasted of his triumph in crushing the teachers of Illinois, especially those in Chicago.
It cost millions to achieve this “victory,” and he had no trouble raising the millions.
Stand for Children, with no roots in Massachusetts, went there to bully the teachers’ union with the threat of a ballot initiative to strip them of hard-won rights, so the union conceded to avoid an expensive election battle.
Flush with cash from equity investors, Stand is now operating in many states. It still pretends to be “for the children,” but it uses its money to attack their teachers. It still pretends to be a supporter of better education, but cannot explain how to get better education if teachers are treated as at-will employees, lacking any academic freedom or collective voice.
Many of its former supporters now refer to Stand for Children with a different name: They call it Stand On Children.
There is always hope for redemption. Jonah was embarrassed when the Aspen video went public (http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/jonah-edelman-apologizes-to-my-blog-readers/). He even recanted in a public letter. But he has not stopped trying to crush teachers and their unions.
Jonah, come home.
Jonah, think of the great legacy of your parents, Marian Wright Edelman and Peter Edelman.
Jonah, the civil rights movement of the 1960s fought so that workers could join a union to protect themselves.
Jonah, remember that Martin Luther King, Jr., died when he went to Memphis to defend the sanitation workers who wanted to join a union.
Jonah, leave the hedge fund managers and the equity investors and return to your roots. Fight for real education reform, not privatization. Respect those who teach our nation’s children.
It is never too late.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I came upon this by accident in the Fred Klonsk blog. It is Jonah apologizing to Fred’s readers. It looks more like backpeddling and CYA…meanwhile the readers did not accept his “apology”. Read here:
https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/jonah-edelman-apologizes-to-my-blog-readers/
Ugh – I shouldn’t have read that before breakfast.
At least the comments were heartening.
Who believes he is so sorry? No one! It just makes him look pitiful. Hasn’t he continued on since then? Why would one apologize and then just continue with the same warped message? There will be a special place for these people when they rest for good.
It’s hard to leave the altar of the all mighty dollar. Just ask Jonah.
So, the Stand for Children – Washington Facebook page has become known for deleting people who are too outspoken. Several of my friends has been removed from their page. I have made it my mission to post things on their page and find out just how far they’ll let me go before deleting me too. I know it’s a silly game but it keeps me entertained.
When I saw this blog post, I just had to copy to their page. I prefaced it with the comment, “I am copying a post by Dr. Diane Ravitch regarding her concerns about how the mission of Stand has changed over the years. Would you describe this as accurate? If not, what errors would you say her post makes? Has your mission changed since Stand’s inception?”
It took a couple of days for anyone to respond but today I got their response. “Shannon, we appreciate your concerns but respectfully disagree with your conclusions. Stand for Children’s mission is to make sure that all students, regardless of income or zip code, graduate from high school prepared for and with access to college. Part of that is full funding – which we continue to advocate for in Washington and in other states – and part of that is smart funding of school improvements, like expanding early learning and making sure we have the best teachers in all our classrooms. After reading Ms. Ravitch’s blog, we hope that you will also take a few moments to look over our policy positions: http://standleadershipcenter.org/what-we-stand.”
I find their response more than a little amusing. As usual they don’t really address any of the concerns raised. In addition, the first sentence states that they disagree with my conclusions. I, however, made no conclusions. I was careful to only pose questions in the hope that they might actually respond with those questions in mind. They do not in any way address the concerns related to a change in their mission. It’s simply a few sentences with little meaning. I suppose they hope that they’ve snowed their supporters so thoroughly that their non-response will go unnoticed.
Do we get the “best” teachers by removing tenure so that teachers are silenced and fearful and have no academic freedom? Does that enhance the profession?
Diane
So I thought you might like their final response. I copied your comment/questions and added my own to which they first replied, “Thanks Shannon, but it’s a little weird to go through third parties for a debate with Ms. Ravitch. If Ms. Ravitch would like to have a conversation, she knows how to get in touch with Stand directly. As we said earlier, I hope you’ll take the time to look over our detailed policy positions on everything from full funding to early learning to improving teacher effectiveness. All of that information is available here: http://standleadershipcenter.org/what-we-stand.”
I asked them to explain their stance on the charter school initiative in WA when it opposed all they claim to support in their What We Stand For paper. So they did, “We support public charter schools as an option for parents and students. With 1240, Washington would have one of the strongest charter laws in the country, and our students would finally have access to a choice of high-performing public charter schools. Many of these high performing charters have been successful at closing the achievement gap and helping struggling students succeed – and that is a major part of our mission.”
It boggles the mind.
I asked in my post whether there was a chance that Stand for Children might yet be able to save its soul. I gave the benefit of the doubt. This response convinces me that there is not a chance that will ever happen. From now on, think of them as “Stand on Children.”
“Stand for Jonah” is what my friend called it 7 years ago–just as Edelman was becoming a PAC-man.
Stand for Children may be unique, too, in having started as a truly positive, grassroots movement and then selling its soul completely, turning its back on its original mission, spirit and organizers. Can anyone think of another organization that has had such a total sellout and moral collapse?
In the nonprofit world there’s the phenomenon of “mission creep,” where the organization’s activities are reshaped entirely by what funders will support. But there needs to be another term for the total sellout to the almighty billionaire dollar.
In the YMCA where I work out is a poster with a quote from Marian Wright Edelman, to the effect of “children learn what they live.” It makes me sad every time I look at it.
I also think that Sidwell Friends has a lot to answer for, since Edelman is not its only alumnus who has build a fabulously financially successful career attacking public schools, children and teachers, under false pretenses of being a do-gooder Shouldn’t there be some soul-searching going on?