As many of you know a group calling itself Stand for Children has submitted a citizen’s petition that may be on the ballot this November. The petition is passed by the voters will have a drastic effect on how teacher evaluations are performed and how school staffing decisions may be enacted. Stand for Children got enough signatures to submit its petition to the attorney general for review. The AG has affirmed the legality of the petition, though the MTA is challenging it. We support the challenge. The signatures were gathered by Stand for Children by paying $2.00 per collected signature to an agency that provides this service. Stand is funded in part by Bain Capital and the Boston Foundation, and has an estimated $7 million in funds.

The AFTMA has prepared an excellent flier with good arguments against the petition. See the AFTMA  flier here. The BTU, the AFTMA and the MTA have united, along with other civic groups, against this petition. The MTA has developed an excellent Stand tool kit with which to arm us with information to counteract the petition drive. See here.