Stand for Children Watch

Stand for Children's Impact on Denver Public Schools

Follow the endorsements. Follow the money. Follow the school closures.

The Endorsement Pipeline

Stand for Children Colorado endorsed school board candidates who supported charter expansion and corporate education reform policies. These were not neutral endorsements — they came with funding, field operations, and the political infrastructure needed to win low-turnout school board elections where a few thousand dollars and a handful of door-knockers can determine the outcome.

The endorsed candidates ran on platforms of "accountability," "choice," and "reform" — language that, in practice, meant expanding charter schools, implementing test-score-based teacher evaluations, and closing neighborhood schools that didn't meet performance benchmarks set by the same reform framework.

The "Reform" Majority

Stand for Children's endorsements contributed to building what became known as the "reform" majority on the Denver Public Schools board. This majority — which included members like Mary Seawell, who raised $240,605 for a school board seat with $144,350 from a single wealthy donor — pursued an aggressive portfolio model that treated neighborhood schools as interchangeable units.

Dr. Nate Easley was the swing vote. A Montbello High School graduate who ran as a community voice, Easley ultimately voted with the reform majority to close his own alma mater — a decision the Montbello community called its "Hurricane Katrina."

48+ Schools Closed

The reform majority's most devastating legacy was the closure of 48+ neighborhood schools between 2005 and 2024. The pattern was documented extensively at maryseawell.com/school-closures/:

• Neighborhood schools were labeled "failing" based on test scores that correlated more with poverty than teaching quality
• Charter schools opened nearby, siphoning enrollment and funding from the neighborhood school
• As enrollment dropped, the district used low enrollment as justification for closure
• Closed schools were replaced with charters — completing the cycle
• Communities of color were disproportionately impacted, with closures concentrated in Montbello, Far Northeast Denver, and Southwest Denver

By Seawell's own later admission, the Montbello replacement schools "for the most part, failed and continue to fail." A decade after the closures, the board voted unanimously to reopen Montbello High School.

The Community Backlash

The school closures sparked community backlash that is documented across the political archive network:

The 2019 Spending

Stand for Children's political spending in Denver did not stop with endorsements. In the 2019 DPS school board races, the organization and its allies spent over $300,000 to support reform-aligned candidates. This spending came as the community was finally organizing effectively to challenge the reform majority — and despite the massive spending advantage, reform candidates lost key races.

The 2019 election marked a turning point. Community-backed candidates like Brad Laurvick won their races, beginning the shift away from the portfolio model and back toward community-centered governance. But the damage had been done: 48+ schools closed, communities fractured, and billions funneled into a charter expansion experiment that the district's own data showed was not delivering better outcomes for students.

The Timeline