Stand for Children: Using Its Oregon Money to Influence Louisiana’s 2019 BESE Election

I have been watching for out-of-state money influencing Louisiana’s October 2019 state board of ed (BESE) elections.

On its 09/10/19 filing, one PAC, Stand for Children LA IEC, reported $420K in contributions; it reported spending $168K on six BESE candidates:

• James Garvey (Dist 1)
• Sandy Holloway (Dist 3)
• Ashley Ellis (Dist 5)
• Ronnie Morris (Dist 6)
• Holly Boffy (Dist 7)
• Preston Castille (Dist 8)

The report includes $192K in contributions first reported on this filing. All of the money came from Stand for Children’s national office in Portland, Oregon.

Not one dollar came from a Louisiana contributor.

Some background on Stand for Children and its presence in Louisiana politics:

Oregon-based Stand for Children has three PACs on file in Louisiana:

• Stand for Children LA PAC, formed in August 2012.
• Stand for Children, Inc., presumably formed in October 2012.
• Stand for Children LA IEC, formed in September 2014.

The last on the list, Stand for Children LA IEC, is the primary PAC in usage. However, according to its 09/10/19 filing, Stand for Children LA PAC has $60K, all from Stand for Children in Oregon, and all expressly for supporting BESE incumbent Holly Boffy (Dist 7).

All three Stand for Children LA PACs are almost exclusively operated using money coming from Stand for Children’s national office in Portland, Oregon.

Stand for Children operates its state branches from its national perch in Oregon, as attested to by statements such as the following from its 2017-18 tax form:

Expenses $439,818: STAND INDIANA CREATED A NEW STAFF POSITION OF FIELD DIRECTOR AND RAN AN EXTENSIVE VOTER OUTREACH AND CANVASSING CAMPAIGN THROUGHOUT THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 2018 IN PREPARATION FOR SUPPORTING 2 REFERENDA FOR INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS (1 OPERATING AND 1 CAPITAL).

Expenses $331,988: STAND WASHINGTON LED A COALITION OF ORGANIZATIONS, PARENTS, AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO EDUCATE LAWMAKERS AND THE PUBLIC AND ADVOCATE FOR PUBLIC AND POLITICAL SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION TO PASS A HIGH SCHOOL SUCCESS PACKAGE. THE LEGISLATION DID NOT PASS DURING THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION.

Expenses $1,762,001: STAND OPERATES PROGRAMS IN 7 ADDITIONAL STATES COLORADO, ILLINOIS, LOUISIANA, MASSACHUSETTS, OKLAHOMA, OREGON, AND TENNESSEE.

Since 2012, hundreds of thousands of dollars has flowed into Louisiana elections from this Portland, Oregon, ed-reform organization, and when I examined the campaign finance filings for these three PACs, I discovered only two Louisiana contributors to one of the PACs, the Stand for Children LA PAC:

• Stephen Rosenthal; Total contribution $30K (10-2012: $10K; 10-2015: $15K; 10-2016: $5K)
• Richard Reilly: 11-2013: $10K

Rosenthal is the brother of “mother of New Orleans Recovery School District,” former BESE member, Leslie Jacobs.

Manufactured grass-roots.

I wrote about Stand for Children (SFC) in my first book, A Chronicle of Echoes (see chapter 19). SFC began in Oregon in 1996 and has planted itself in nine states since.

In 2011, SFC co-founder, Jonah Edelman, publicly bragged about his efforts to prevent Chicago teachers from striking because SFC successfully pushed for legislation requiring a 75% of union members to approve a strike. (Despite Edelman’s SFC maneuvering, in January 2012, nearly 90% of Chicago teachers voted to authorize a strike.)

SFC is anti-union, pro-Common Core, pro-school choice—usual corporate-ed-reform fare. As for some of its major money: Since 2010, the Walton Family Foundation has funded SFC (via the SFC Leadership Center) $4.1M, with $400,000 specifically earmarked for Louisiana.

Then, there’s the Gates funding.

Since 2005, the Gates Foundation has funded SFC $20.1M, with $3.2M earmarked in July 2012 “to support the effective teaching work underway as well as to strengthen the capacity of their national office to deliver state of the art organizing programs to other state affiliates throughout the country.”

Some other Gates-SFC “let’s build some grass roots” highlights:

• In October 2013, $880K “to support a cohort of school district superintendents to advocate for improving teaching, learning, and results in Louisiana public schools”
• November 2013: $751K “to support public understanding and successful implementation of college and career ready standards”
• October 2014: $2.6M “to support Common Core implementation and teacher effectiveness programs”
• October 2015: $4.3M “to support capacity building and increased public will around Common Core standards and aligned assessments in four states, as well as positive teacher effectiveness policy changes”
• November 2017: $1.3M “to support capacity building and increased public will around high quality standards and aligned assessments”

For more on SFC and its funders, see this ProPublica link.

Back to BESE:

On its Louisiana site, SFC advertises its BESE picks (which includes Tony Davis, who is unopposed in District 4, and Kira Orange-Jones, who SFC has apparently not earmarked for support using its Oregon money as of 09/10/19.)

In Louisiana, SFC advertises its process for supporting BESE candidates:

Electing Bold Leaders

Stand for Children Louisiana’s mission is to ensure that all kids, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for, and with access to, a college education. In Louisiana, too many kids don’t make it to graduation with the skills they need to be successful in life. That is why Stand members are committed to working to elect leaders who are deeply committed to improving educational opportunities for children and who make decisions in the best interests of the children they are elected to serve.

Stand for Children Louisiana is committed to utilizing a robust and transparent member endorsement process in order to support those candidates who best stand for the values and ideals espoused by Stand For Children.

The Process

All candidates running for critical school board seats were sent comprehensive questionnaires and given adequate time to respond and complete.

Upon receiving the completed questionnaires, Stand’s Endorsement Committee reviewed each candidate’s responses, bios and relevant voting records, if available. Those candidates who returned completed questionnaires were invited to participate in an in-person interview with Endorsement Committee Members. Endorsement Committee members were able to make their decisions based on each candidate’s interview, questionnaire responses and relevant experience or voting record. Final endorsement decisions for each candidate were based on the below criteria.

Candidate Criteria

• Issue Alignment: They show a commitment to raising achievement for all students, increasing family and community involvement, improving school funding, and ensuring our schools have effective principals and teachers. If the candidate is an incumbent, they have a strong track record on improving education.
• Strong Personal Character: They have a vision and make clear commitments to improving education or have a proven record of bold, innovative leadership on student-centered policies. They show bold leadership, strive for consensus, but are willing to support potentially unpopular policy changes if necessary to get results for children.
• Viability: They have a clear and viable strategy for winning their race.

It all sounds so locally-driven, so grass-rootsy.

It’s probably best to not mention that SFC in Oregon finances the show.

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Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

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