Stand for Children

An Oregon-based education reform group called Stand for Children came into  Illinois this election season, with a bit of financial swagger, to lay down the gauntlet in  behalf of tougher teacher tenure laws, public charter schools, and expanded time on task  in the classroom.  

In Springfield, the group will face off against the powerful teachers’ unions,  which normally swat their opposition off like flies off the shirt sleeve. But Stand for  Children appears to have the moxey and resources to become a real player in Illinois  politics. 

In the past election, Stand for Children put $650,000 into nine competitive state  legislative campaigns. With contributions of up to $175,000 per candidate, this was huge  money. Five were winners, including Richard Morthland (R-Cordova), Rep. Jehan  Gordon (D-Peoria), Keith Farnham (D-Elgin), Daniel Biss (D-Skokie), and Sen. Toi  Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights). 

As a result of an interview process with Stand for Children leaders, Morthland  received $25,000 from the group. Thirty-six candidates were interviewed. Morthland agrees with Stand for Children on issues of annual teacher tenure  evaluations and making it easier to fire ineffective teachers.

“I think Stand for Children will be a really good organization for Illinois because  they want to be in line with the will of the people,” said Morthland, a communications instructor at Black Hawk College in Moline and also a dairy farmer. 

Stand for Children started more than a decade ago as the brainchild of Jonah Edelman, a one-time community organizer and Rhodes Scholar who is the son of civil  rights leader Marian Wright Edelman.  

Stand was a collaborator in the movie “Waiting for Superman,” which  emotionally describes the horrors faced by children in urban schools and prescribes charter school expansion as a remedy. (Charter schools are public schools that operate  somewhat independently of the central school administration; the schools often have a  themed focus such as math and science or the arts.) 

The group also wants to make it harder to earn and keep teacher tenure and easier  to fire bad teachers. Several years ago, this newspaper sponsored a series of award winning articles by Scott Reeder, which showed that only two teachers a year were fired  for incompetence, and that the cost of trying to fire a bad teacher ran into the hundreds of  thousands of dollars. 

All this means that Stand for Children, along with other reform groups, will  ultimately run afoul of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education  Association, the teachers’ unions that typically spend $2 million each per election cycle  to support a broad array of legislators.  

The unions have dominated education policymaking in Illinois for years, yet they  are now on the defensive as citizens become frustrated by the slow pace of school improvement. For example, as Stand points out, only 15 percent of black students in  Illinois are proficient readers at 4th grade and only 9 percent are proficient in math. Stand for Children has grown to seven state affiliates, with Illinois being the  latest. The group seeks in each state to grow local chapters of citizens who are  committed to their reforms. At present, Stand is recruiting both an executive director and  community organizers.  

The funding for Stand is not clear, but billionaire Bill Gates and other wealthy  technology leaders are thought to be among the backers of the group, which spent $3  million to operate last year. 

Among other accomplishments, Stand claims that it played “lead” and “key” roles  in passage in Tennessee of legislation that requires annual evaluation of tenured teachers  and in Massachusetts of a bill that doubles the percentage of students in low-performing  schools with access to charter schools. 

There are a number of education reform groups in Illinois. Advance Illinois,  headed by former Republican governor Jim Edgar and Democrat insider and banker  William Daley, is probably the best known home-grown product. But only Stand for  Children is organized to do political contributing and lobbying in Springfield. If I were a  state legislator (as I used to be), I would sure like to be aligned with a group that gives  out huge contributions to individual candidates. 

I predict that the teachers’ unions will give some ground in the coming years on  issues such as teacher tenure and charter schools, in part because of the new player in  Illinois called Stand for Children.