Stand for Children Watch

Is Stand for Children Buying IPS School Board Election?

Originally reported by the Indianapolis Recorder

"The new, more odious player in the IPS race is a group with an innocent name — Stand for Children."

The Indianapolis Recorder, one of America's oldest African-American newspapers, published a pointed investigation into Stand for Children's involvement in the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) school board election. The article pulled no punches: an outside organization with no roots in Indianapolis was spending heavily to determine who would govern the city's public schools.

The investigation was significant not just for what it revealed about Stand for Children's tactics in Indiana, but for what it confirmed about a national pattern. The same organization that was endorsing in 18 races in Colorado, that was shaping education policy in Oregon and Oklahoma, was now attempting to install its preferred candidates on the IPS board — a district serving a largely Black and Brown student population.

The Indianapolis Context

Indianapolis Public Schools was already under immense pressure by 2014. Like Denver Public Schools, IPS faced declining enrollment, the expansion of charter schools and voucher programs, and a state political environment that was hostile to traditional public education. Indiana had adopted some of the most aggressive school choice policies in the country, and organizations like Stand for Children saw an opportunity to shape the board that would govern through these changes.

The Recorder's coverage highlighted a dynamic that communities across the country were grappling with: national organizations with deep pockets could overwhelm local school board races with spending that dwarfed anything community candidates could raise. In low-turnout elections, this kind of spending was often decisive.

"A Group With an Innocent Name"

The Recorder's characterization of Stand for Children as "a group with an innocent name" captured a frustration shared by education advocates in every state where the organization operated. The name "Stand for Children" implies grassroots advocacy — parents organizing to support their kids. The reality, as the Recorder documented, was a well-funded political operation that parachuted into communities to advance an agenda set by national leadership, not local families.

This disconnect between branding and practice was not unique to Indianapolis. In Colorado, Stand for Children endorsed across 18 races while presenting itself as a children's advocacy organization. In Oklahoma, NewsOK reported that the organization's campaign tactics "undermined its mission." In every state, the pattern was the same: an organization that claimed to stand for children but spent its resources on political campaigns.

The Broader Pattern

What made the Indianapolis Recorder's reporting especially valuable was its clear-eyed recognition that Stand for Children's IPS involvement was not an isolated incident. The organization was part of a national network of education reform groups — alongside Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and others — that were systematically targeting school board elections to advance charter school expansion and teacher evaluation "reform."

The communities most affected by these interventions were consistently communities of color. In Indianapolis, as in Denver's Montbello neighborhood, as in post-Katrina New Orleans, the reform agenda was imposed on Black and Brown communities by organizations with leadership, funding, and priorities that did not reflect those communities.

Lessons for Other Communities

The Indianapolis Recorder's investigation serves as a template for what watchdog journalism should look like in education politics:

• Follow the money. Who is funding the candidates? Where does the money come from?
• Name the organizations. Do not let groups hide behind benign names. Identify who they are, what they want, and who funds them.
• Connect the dots. Stand for Children's IPS involvement was part of a national strategy. Report it that way.
• Center the community. The people most affected by these interventions — parents, teachers, students — deserve to know who is trying to shape their schools.