::The Open Letter to Stand for Children

As parents, teachers, and community members, we are Massachusetts grassroots activists for education. We read bills, testify at hearings, write letters to the editor, pore over budgets, speak at town meetings, make phone calls, and hold fundraisers. Many of us have done so for years.

It was as part of this work and with great hope that we joined Stand for Children.  And—initially—Stand helped us do great work.  We cast a critical eye on education bills at the State House and testified as needed. We turned back ballot initiatives that would have gutted education funding. We closely watched local budgets to keep dollars close to classrooms. We put our voices, time, money, and reputations into building Stand for Children. Because we were united and we spoke from our experience, we were heard.

Along the way, we learned a great deal about the legislative process, education funding, and policy. We learned to research our positions, present them, and back them up.

But in 2009, while we struggled to give voice to the needs of our schools, Stand’s staff was turning away from our concerns, announcing that it expected its members to forgo community advocacy in favor of a new, special agenda. This agenda, emerging seemingly out of nowhere, touted more charter schools, more testing, and punishing teachers and schools for low student scores.

None of these initiatives arose from the needs of our communities.  Indeed, we understood well their dangers. Yet all of them became the positions of Stand for Children. Policy proposals no longer came from the local level. They were dictated from the top.

What accounted for this shift?  We were mystified at first. But we’ve since learned that Stand abandoned its own local members – us – to follow the lure of millions of dollars from Bain Capital, the Walton Foundation, Bill Gates, and others who had an agenda in conflict with our previous efforts.

The ballot initiative brought forward by Stand for Children is just the most recent example.

Stand was one group of many at the table when the new Massachusetts educator evaluation system was hammered out over several months last spring. Unions, principals, state officials, parents—all contributed. But when the new regulations were finally announced, one group walked away—Stand for Children.

Immediately, Stand filed for a ballot initiative and used some of their new corporate money to hire people to collect the signatures. It cost them $3 a signature, but they have plenty more. They are following the master plan revealed in Colorado by their national CEO, Jonah Edelman, a month before it was announced in Massachusetts.

The proposed ballot measure attempts to blow up the collaborative work that created the new regulations last spring. It does nothing to improve teaching in our schools. What it does is put the careers of our teachers at the mercy of an untested rating system, violating the recommendations of the people who designed that system.

We fear the result would be to drive some of our best teachers away from the schools that need them most.

This ballot measure fits the ideology of its corporate sponsors, but it is not what we want for those who teach our children. Most of all, it is not what we want for our children. 

Therefore we the undersigned, as former members and leaders of Stand for Children, urge Massachusetts voters to oppose this ballot measure.

Ted A. Adams, Medford
Alessandro Alessandrini, Lexington School Committee member
Bonnie Brodner, Lexington School Committee member
Dale Bryan, Medford
Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Somerville
Mary Cleary, Worcester
Margaret E. Coppe, Lexington School Committee member
Ann Marie Cugno, Medford School Committee member
Tom Diaz, Lexington, former School Committee chair
Jonathan Dreyer, Lexington
Michael Feldgarden, Boston
Lisa Fenichel, Arlington
Mary Finn, Medford
Mary Fusoni, Arlington
Ann Gallager, Medford
Roger Garberg, Gloucester School Committee member
Isabel Gonzalez, Worcester, Former Stand staff organizer
Barbara C. Goodman, Arlington, Former Stand State Strategy Member
Jason Grow, Gloucester
Sharon Guzik, Medford
Matt Haberstroh, Medford
Victoria Halal, Medford
Moe Henzel, Mendon
Geeta Jain, Medford
Josh Kratka, Arlington
John J. Krawczyk, Lexington
Mary-Beth Landy, Medford
Lynne Lupien, Lowell, MA
Meredith Martin, Saugus
Bonnie McFarlane, Medford
Michelle McGonagle, Medford
Beth Morris, Gloucester
Tracy Novick, Worcester School Committee member
Christopher Nye, Sheffield
Ann O’Halloran, Waltham, formerly of Newton Stand for Children
Natalie O’Hayre, Worcester
Simon Paddock, Gloucester
Rev. Aaron Payson, Worcester
Meryl Perlson, Medford
Sondra Peskoe, Brookline, formerly of Arlington Stand for Children
Karen Poole, Holliston
Joyce Shortt, Somerville, MA
Deb Steigman, Worcester
Mary Ann Stewart, Lexington School Committee member
Paulette Van der Kloot, Medford School Committee member
Deb Vuona, Worcester
David J. Weinstein, Jamaica Plain
Jennifer Whelan, Auburn
Adiya White-Hammond, Boston

Support from outside Massachusetts

Susan Barrett, Portland, OR
Betsy Marshall, New Paltz, NY
Tom Olson, Canby, OR
Melissa Westbrook, Seattle, WA