I received the letter at the bottom of this post at the beginning of January. I thought it deserved a response.
This was my response:
Dear Jonah,
You don’t know me but I have followed your career. As the son of illustrious parents, much was expected of you.
Stand for Children was a great idea, when it actually defended children and public schools.
But somewhere along the way, you changed and Stand for Children changed. In 2007-08, you began to accept gifts of millions of dollars from “ultra-wealthy political donors,” and you began leading campaigns against teachers, their unions, and public schools. You demanded test-based evaluations of teachers, a useless metric that punished teachers who taught the neediest children. You boasted at an Aspen summer meeting in 2011 (which I attended) that you had outsmarted the Chicago Teachers Union by hiring all the best lobbyists. The big political donors gave you money to support pro-charter candidates in school board races.
Early supporters of Stand for Children started to call it “Stand on Children.”
I agree with all the goals you describe in your letter, and I must ask you if you will continue to promote charter schools, even though they drain money from public schools; whether you will continue to support test-based evaluation of teachers, even though it has consistently failed; whether you will continue to support school board candidates who favor charter schools and privatization.
If you truly intend to reject donations from “ultra-wealthy political donors,” if you truly reject all forms of privatization, including charter schools, if you truly mean to demand “that politicians at all levels do everything possible to protect and strengthen public education, support children and families’ well-being, and reduce the prevalence of racism,” then we can stand together. Please let me and the Network for Public Education know where you stand on the issues that could unite us.
Diane Ravitch
On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 10:36 AM Jonah Edelman <info@stand.org> wrote:
Diane,
Reflecting on 2021, I see reasons for hope. The widespread availability of vaccines. A return to in-person learning. An economy that rebounded with record speed due to bold government action.
At the same time, there is cause for grave concern. Tens of millions of children and young people are struggling to recover academically, socially, and emotionally from the pandemic. Tragically, instead of using their power to help children and young people get on track, politicians are passing bans on conversations about race and discrimination that deny children the honest and unbiased understanding of the past they need to create a better future. At the same time, extremists are targeting and harassing school board members, principals, teachers, parents, and even students who want an accurate portrayal of U.S. history with diverse viewpoints.DONATE
Public education is the pathway to economic opportunity and the backbone of a healthy democracy.
That is why we must stand together against the politicians, media moguls, and ultra-wealthy political donors who are stirring up fear and hate and conspiring to make public education a political battleground at the expense of our children’s learning and well-being.
And it is why, together, we must continue to use our collective voice and votes to ensure that politicians at all levels do everything possible to protect and strengthen public education, support children and families’ well-being, and reduce the prevalence of racism and the harm it does to us all.
We are deeply grateful for your partnership and support, and we hope you will continue to stand with us in 2022.
Standing together with you,
Jonah Edelman
Stand for Children
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ed reformers working hard to improve public schools again:
“Gov. Kim Reynolds is using books as the latest excuse to defund public schools.
Reynolds used Tuesday’s 2022 Condition of the State address to hitch her wagon to state Sen. Jake Chapman’s crusade against books he finds objectionable being placed in public schools.
Presiding over a joint session of the Iowa Legislature, Reynolds echoed talking points from the Republican Senate president who, a day prior, decried teachers as having a “sinister agenda.”
A book banning law and yet another private school voucher. Sum total accomplishments of the “movement” in Iowa for 2021.
I guess the book banning law is for the public school students. Thanks! Great work. So happy this echo chamber completely dominates US education policy. Really working out super great for public school students.
Oh, well. Maybe next year they’re finally get around to “improving public schools”. Wasn’t that we hired all these people? It’s been so long I forget.
Has it penetrated the ed reform echo chamber yet that promoting vouchers for private schools – schools that aren’t subject to ed reform mandates like the book bans – WHILE adding more and more punishing mandates to public schools is both hypocritical and incoherent?
Nah. You would need someone who isn’t an echo chamber member to point it out, and dissenters need not apply.
TMZ Live
TMZLive
· 21h
With a new COVID-19 surge across the US, schools are contemplating going back to remote learning. We spoke with Former U.S. Education Secretary arneduncan about the toll remote learning takes on students:
Could they possibly find someone who actually supports and values public schools to opine on public schools, or is that not allowed?
Is there some reason charters and vouchers get their advocates interviewed and public schools ALSO get charter and voucher advocates interviewed?
Arne Duncan wrote a book that operates on the premise that public schools “lie” to parents. Since when is he the spokesperson? He’s a detractor. At least get both sides.
Gosh, why do I get the feeling Edelman isn’t to be trusted? I think we’re in fool-me-twice-shame-on-me land. It’s made me sad to consider how badly he went wrong, considering his parents, ever since I viewed that Aspen Institute video. Also, I’ve pondered how many sleazy people his alma mater, supposedly mindful Sidwell Friends, has turned out.
I think Edelman just brushed you off. I think instead of responding to your letter, he changed the subject and avoided what you were asking him to say.
It isn’t what he says in his reply that counts. Instead, wait to see what he does. Actions are the true lens of who someone is, not what they say.
The “pen” may be mightier than the sword, but the “pen” is also a weapon that may be used to distract and deceive.
Did you notice that NOT ONCE did he mention CHARTERS in his reply? You mentioned CHARTERS four times. By avoiding any mention of CHARTERS I think he is signaling that there will be no change in what he has done since he sold out.
Edelman sidestepped and focused his reply to gain donations and more money by sounding good. I think he is another deceiver, a grifter.
Until Edelman comes out and says he is against all vouchers and all CHARTERs and every public dollar meant for K-12 education and preschool must go the real public schools, then I want to suggest that you remove the DONATE button from his reply.
I think Edelman’s goal in his reply to your letter was to turn your blog into a cash cow for his deceptive Stand for Children. According to this site, his net worth is $1.27 million.
https://peopleai.com/fame/identities/jonah-edelman
Read what this site has to say about him and his cash cow called Stand for Children.
https://ballotpedia.org/Stand_for_Children
Also read what Glass Door has to say about his Stand For Children, every review no tjust the positive ones. One former employee wrote “more negative’s than positives”
https://www.glassdoor.sg/Reviews/Stand-for-Children-Reviews-E312256.htm
His letter was NOT a response to mine. I received his letter during the holidays. My comment is a response to him.
You would never know he was an Ed Reformer from his letter. So disingenuous.
Really? His reply is the epitome of an Ed “deformer”! He never addresses the issue and talks around the edges. He is completely captured by his Billionaire handlers and will not bite the hands that feed his bank account.
Your point is well taken, LisaM. i’m occasionally easily fooled. A letter like this would at least demand some background research.
Yes, there are plenty of examples of offspring who rebel against their parents’ politics — and relatives (I’m thinking of the siblings of the crazed Arizona zealot Paul Gosar who deplore him). But in Edelman’s case it’s not right vs. left. It’s righteousness (his parents) vs. sleaze (his) — so that’s a much sadder thing. That was a pure sellout, not just something to do with different political views. If anyone were uncertain about that, he did it dishonestly, failing to let the people who’d supported his organization know that it turned into a billionaire-funded anti-teacher, anti-union, anti-public education, pro-privatization operation.
Yes, Caroline SF, this apple fell very far from the tree.
Maybe he could just close up shop because he and his phony, corporate rhetoric is completely out of step with The Times. Our youth hear “the beat”, the living ♥️ heart beat that compels them to organize high school WALKOUTS all over the USA beginning on 1/11/22, wherever the most basic of Covid protocols are being ignored by school districts.
Maybe he should Stand For Children by shifting donor $$$ to a mass purchase of masks, rapid tests, in-building sanitation crew services, emergency EMT and Teacher Substitute services?
“Actions speak louder than words.” People should be judged by their deeds more than their words. If Stand for Children has been transformed, your suggestions about helping keep children safe in a pandemic are perfect.
Congratulations, Diane. Your name has been entered into Stand for Children’s mail merge data base, ready in one click to blast out e-mails asking for money. This is YOUR opportunity to give back & fight against ___________________ [fill in the blank]
OMG – I not only met Jonah Edelman in 2009 but actually had two sit down meetings with him as I ran for re-election. Denver, of course, was one of Stand’s first targets, in part because he grew up next door to then Superintendent Tom Boasberg. Jonah assured me all I had to do to “earn” Stand’s endorsement was basically throw teachers under the bus. Even back then I smelled a rat. Stand tried to enlist principals to allow its employees to come and organize parents. Since that time it has continued to push “community engagement” as its reason for existence, while ignoring the wishes of real communities, i.e., equity for neighborhood schools. In Denver’s most recent election, it endorsed one union backed candidate under the guise she listened to Stand’s community. The reality is she supported charter schools as they came up for approval/renewal. Stand for Children and Jonah Edelman remain the red flag to me. Even with their supposed re-birth. They and he are not to be trusted. And it remains a mystery (not really) how they can even still be in existence. They have done nothing for kids in Denver but as you said, Diane, Stand ON Children.
“Doing nothing” but, harm as commenter Chiara has pointed out about the self-appointed ed propagandists in Ohio. In Ohio, there’s reason to assume the goal is Christian nationalism with preference for the advancement of Melinda Gates’ sect.
The Gates Foundation chose John Deasy for its education campaign. He was formerly an assistant principal at a Catholic military academy.
A letter that praises Jonah Edelman as co-founder of Stand for Children is posted at the Children’s Defense Fund website. It is dated 6-4-2021.
Given Edelman’s statements at the Aspen Festival of Ideas- it doesn’t seem to me like a good idea for CDF to post the letter.
GREAT letter Diane.
In his speech welcomed at Aspen, Jonah Edelman proved himself to be an arrogant jerk and bully. He has access to resources provided by education sector oligarchs. Aspen is the location of the Gates-funded privatization strategy, Pahara Institute, whose founder said, the goal of charters is brands on a large scale.
Wikipedia describes him as brandishing the rhetoric of “ramming down their throats in the same way as pension reform.”
My message to the cosmos, ram justice down Edelman’s throat.
I believe you simply misspelled Piranha Institute
Jonah’s brother, Josh, worked for Gates for 10 years. Now, he’s with Biden, even after Jonah’s horrific comments. A letter to my U.S. senator seems warranted.
Democrats should avoid creating embarrassing situations that make them look bad.
For younger readers, they may not know who his parents are. Maybe explain who they were and what they stood for, and speculate on why the offspring of progressive leaders sell out their parents values (ie Susan Rice’s son)
$$$$$$$$. Greed is a powerful emotion.
And, sometimes it works in reverse. The son of union buster, Rick Berman, spoke out against his father’s campaign. Berman Sr. worked against people who sought a fair share of rewards in the places where they generated GDP. Berman enabled the families of the rich to lead lives of excess on the toil of the working class.
And Susan Rice’s son was president of the conservative student group at Stanford.
And Ted Cruz’s daughter made a TikTok video saying she does not agree with her father, and she’s bisexual.
And Rudy Guiliani’s daughter Caroline did the same.
Jonah’s parents were progressive activists. His mother Marian Wright Edelman founded the Children’s Defense Fund and was outspoken on behalf of “the whole child.” His father Peter Edelman is a lawyer and civil rights activist. He worked for Bobby Kennedy and he resigned from the Clinton administration to protest its welfare reform legislation.
If I have seen farther than others, it was by standing on the shoulders of giants” — Isaac Newton
“If I have schemed further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of children” — Any D. Former
Amazing again- Poet
Shorter Diane
You don’t know me, but I have followed your career… off the rails.
Sincerely, Diane Ravitch
“off the rails”…and run out of town on a rail.
That’s damn good!
You said it. Not I.
DAM good.
“In 2001 and thereafter, Olasky and the World Magazine (he was its former editor) criticized the Bush administration for not following through on school choice.” In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, Olasky edited, Turning Point: A Christian Worldview Declaration.
“Marvin Olasky is not a fan of high-achieving women. ‘Women joining the workforce have had dire consequences for society,’ he told a Christian magazine in 1998.” (Laura Flanders-2004)
Olasky countered that he was actually praising the high achievements of women in major philanthropic organizations. (Wikipedia entry for Marvin Olasky who is a Senior Fellow at the Acton Institute and a Board member of the Austin Crisis Pregnancy Center)
In an article about Marian Wright Edelman, Olasky is quoted as marking the 2006 death of William Sloan Coffin as the end of the Social Gospel. Marian Wright subscribed to the Social Gospel.
Newt Gingrich gave Olasky’s book to GOP U.S. House members in 1995. Olasky has been a ruling elder within the Presbyterian Church in America since 1996.
Input from Olasky influenced the creation of Pres. Bush’ faith based programs which were a major component of his 2000 campaign.
“In 2006, the author of, ‘…The Rise of Christian Nationalism’ placed Olasky in a crucial role in the Christian deconstructionism and dominionism movements….”
From Wikipedia in reference to his views on journalism, “Olasky teaches in a 2019 book how to advance biblical principles through street level rather than suite level reporting.”
Edel man
Edel man
Every morning you greet me
It’s your brand
On children you stand
You look happy to me
The “tree” doesn’t think the “apple” fell far from it. Marian Wright Edelman wrote a letter 6-4-2021 posted at her Children’s Defense Fund site, “I could not be prouder of my son, Stand for Children’s co-founder.”
Based on the letter, if I was a CDF donor, I would think money given to Stand for Children, would be used for purposes similar to CDF’s.
I hope I’m not being naive to believe that the Christian faith links/rhetoric of Marian and CDF people aren’t aligned with tax dollars for religious schools.
Does CDF have a lot of money? Are its corporate or whatever donors the same as Stand for Children’s?
CDF Assets- 2019 – approx. $27,485,000
The Edelman Family-
Brother Josh worked for B and M Gates for 10 years then, went to work for Biden.
Jonah’s at Stand for Children.
And, Mom, Marian, has the Children’s Defense Fund
Linda:
This /6/24/21 letter surprises me, as she had left the S.o.C. Board when Jonah’s real intents/purposes became clear.
I don’t think Peter supports what Jonah & Josh are doing.
I don’t think much of the Edelman’s 2nd generation legacy. Why are their sons against democracy? Did Josh and Jonah attend Sidwell?
Too many adult kids of prominent people, attached to D.C. political parties, have disdain for working people. The utter contempt should be directed the other way.
Peter, who’s at the private Catholic university, Georgetown, could fund the Network for Public Education if he disagrees with his sons..
ABased on the letter, if I was a CDF donor, I would think money given to Stand for Children, would be used for purposes similar to CDF’s.
How do we know what purposes all the donations are used for a CSV?
Just because one does something worthy with sone of the money, doesn’t mean one is doing something good with all of it.
I’m not saying it is the case with CSV, but some of these nonprofits are effective timely fronts that allow their operators go pull down six or even seven figure salaries.
People who gift money go them without knowing where ALL of the money us going are very naive.
CDF, not CSV
In a quick search, I was unable to find who the big CDF donors were/are or how much, if anything, the organization’s founder receives/ed from revenues.
One thing we all know is that charitable donations avoid taxation which means less government revenue for its social programs.
There’s a very strong campaign by the conservative religious to diminish the role of government in social services. It’s one of the ways that is being used to distance the U.S. from other western democracies.
Years ago SFC was a prominent force in Memphis to get the Achievement School District (charter) takeover. Those schools failed.
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/education/2021/12/13/tennessee-asd-returns-four-frayser-schools-scs-memphis-exit-plan/6418086001/
At the CDF site, read the tab, “Programs.” It’s not clear to me where public K-12 fits into their vision. I noted CDF has trademarked, CDF Freedom Schools. The word, “program”, follows after the circled “R” (stands for registered).
Two entries under the “Programs” tab are “Children’s Sabbaths Celebration” and “Samual Dewitt Proctor Institute”. Both are worth a look.
Btw- In 2021, TFA posted about CDF’s trademarked Freedom Schools.
Teachers of color lost their jobs and the financial security attached to them when cities like New Orleans privatized schools. As a supporter of civil rights, democracy and the common good, my distance from TFA (corporate funded) seems well-advised.
If I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth and connections that provided lucrative jobs and access to rich heirs to fund my projects, I’d hope that my sensitivities and life’s work reflected an understanding about fairness.
Biden, as noted by media, has too many ivy leaguers in his administration.
Manifold.umn.edu posted, “Charter School real estate schemes and the theft of agency”. The posted research has a section about Seth Andrew (pled guilty to financial crimes today) and, it has the following. “John Legend (Ivy League schooling) has been active in several corporate school reform organizations dedicated to privatization and union busting including Stand for Children and Teach for America.”
Elites who step on working people…
People can believe in civil rights legislation and be opposed to unions and public schools. IMO, it’s short sighted. The Biel v. St. James Catholic school SCOTUS ruling that exempted religious schools from civil rights employment law makes a compelling case that civil rights can end up in the trash heap if one religion or an alliance of the two major U.S. religions succeed in legal dominionism.
Sometimes people get what they deserve. Unfortunately, others who were not complicit suffer as well.