Jonah Edelman
Encyclopedia
Jonah Martin Edelman is an American
advocate
for public education. He is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stand for Children
, a national American education advocacy organization based in Portland, Oregon
and Waltham, Massachusetts
, with affiliates in nine states. He is the first Oregon resident to be awarded an Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
fellowship.
, former civil rights leader and aide to Martin Luther King, jr. and founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and Peter Edelman
, former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy
, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Edelman was born and raised in Washington, D.C, and received his B.A. in History with a concentration on African-American studies from Yale University
in 1992. Edelman attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship
, earning his Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Politics in 1994 and 1995, respectively.
Edelman cites tutoring a six-year-old bilingual child named Daniel Zayas in reading while volunteering at Dwight Elementary School during his first year at Yale as a turning point. While still an undergraduate, he ran a teen pregnancy prevention speakers' bureau, co-founded a mentorship program for African American middle school students, and served as an administrator of an enrichment program for children living in public housing-Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP).
, who later became Stand for Children’s first Board of Directors Chair, the editor of Parade Magazine, Walter Anderson
, who came up with the name “Stand for Children Day,” and Marian Wright Edelman
.
On June 2, 1996, Edelman and Eliza Leighton founded Stand for Children as an ongoing advocacy organization to support rally participants when they returned home. Hundreds of follow up Stand for Children events and rallies took place across the country on June 1, 1997 and then June 1, 1998.
Anxious to have a deeper impact on children’s lives than was possible through one-day events, Edelman developed Stand for Children's grassroots advocacy approach based on key strengths of leading past and present membership associations, community organizing networks, and advocacy groups, and in consultation with legendary organizer Marshall Ganz
, a protégé of Cesar Chavez
. In November 1998, Edelman moved to Oregon to pilot it at the urging of Hanna Andersson founder and then CEO Gun Denhart. In 1999, Edelman supported a team of committed Salem, Oregon residents in organizing Stand’s first chapter, which remains active. In the more than decade since, Stand for Children has grown to include dozens of local chapters in nine state affiliates and become a leading advocate in the United States for better public schools. Stand for Children focuses on the following strategies for improving public schools:
In 2011, Stand for Children – and Edelman in particular – was cited in Time Magazine for “delivering results and changing how politicians think about grassroots education reform.” This acclaim was attributed to their work to improve school funding in Oregon, teacher evaluations in Colorado, and teacher policy in Illinois.
Recent Controversy
At the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 28,2011, Edelman was the center of a controversy due to remarks he made regarding recent concessions by teachers' unions leading to landmark education reform legislation in Illinois. While unions and legislators say they engaged in a collaborative effort in which all sides gave a little in an effort to improve Illinois’ schools, Edelman told attendees at the Festival, that, actually, he led a well-funded campaign that used lobbyists and shrewd political gamesmanship to pressure union leaders to give up their rights. “They essentially gave away every single provision related to teacher effectiveness that we had proposed — everything we had fought for in Colorado,” Edelman said in Aspen. “We hired 11 lobbyists, including four of the absolute best insiders and seven of the best minority lobbyists, preventing the unions from hiring them.” He further stated, “There was a palpable sense of concern if not shock on the part of the teachers’ unions of Illinois that Speaker [of the House Mike] Madigan had changed allegiance and that we had clear political capability to potentially jam this proposal down their throats the same way that pension reform had been jammed down their throats six months earlier."
Subsequent to this speech, a video of Edelman’s lecture went viral. Afterwards, he apologized for his “arrogance” in claiming his political manipulations alone passed the bill to the exclusion of unions’ contributions. The Illinois Education Association declined his apology.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
advocate
Advocate
An advocate is a term for a professional lawyer used in several different legal systems. These include Scotland, South Africa, India, Scandinavian jurisdictions, Israel, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man...
for public education. He is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stand for Children
Stand for Children
Stand for Children is an American organization that is an independent and non-partisan advocate for American children's education. Founded in 1996 following the largest rally for children in American history, the non-profit helps organize and mobilize citizen activists who care about children to...
, a national American education advocacy organization based in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
and Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
, with affiliates in nine states. He is the first Oregon resident to be awarded an Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of...
fellowship.
Background and education
Jonah Edelman is the second son of Marian Wright EdelmanMarian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.-Early years:...
, former civil rights leader and aide to Martin Luther King, jr. and founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and Peter Edelman
Peter Edelman
Peter B. Edelman is a lawyer, policy maker, and law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in the fields of poverty, welfare, juvenile justice, and constitutional law. Edelman grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father worked as a lawyer and his mother worked as a home-maker...
, former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
Edelman was born and raised in Washington, D.C, and received his B.A. in History with a concentration on African-American studies from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1992. Edelman attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
, earning his Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Politics in 1994 and 1995, respectively.
Edelman cites tutoring a six-year-old bilingual child named Daniel Zayas in reading while volunteering at Dwight Elementary School during his first year at Yale as a turning point. While still an undergraduate, he ran a teen pregnancy prevention speakers' bureau, co-founded a mentorship program for African American middle school students, and served as an administrator of an enrichment program for children living in public housing-Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP).
Stand for Children
Edelman was a key organizer of Stand for Children Day, a June 1, 1996 rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. attended by 300,000 people. Among the speakers at this rally, the largest for children in U.S. history, were Geoffrey CanadaGeoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canada is an African American social activist and educator. Since 1990, Canada has been president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization which states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem...
, who later became Stand for Children’s first Board of Directors Chair, the editor of Parade Magazine, Walter Anderson
Walter Anderson (editor)
Walter Anderson is the Chairman and CEO of Parade Publications . Anderson was an editor of Parade magazine for 20 years before being named CEO.BACKGROUND...
, who came up with the name “Stand for Children Day,” and Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.-Early years:...
.
On June 2, 1996, Edelman and Eliza Leighton founded Stand for Children as an ongoing advocacy organization to support rally participants when they returned home. Hundreds of follow up Stand for Children events and rallies took place across the country on June 1, 1997 and then June 1, 1998.
Anxious to have a deeper impact on children’s lives than was possible through one-day events, Edelman developed Stand for Children's grassroots advocacy approach based on key strengths of leading past and present membership associations, community organizing networks, and advocacy groups, and in consultation with legendary organizer Marshall Ganz
Marshall Ganz
Marshall Ganz is a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He worked on the staff of the United Farm Workers for sixteen years before becoming a trainer and organizer for political campaigns, unions and nonprofit groups...
, a protégé of Cesar Chavez
César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
. In November 1998, Edelman moved to Oregon to pilot it at the urging of Hanna Andersson founder and then CEO Gun Denhart. In 1999, Edelman supported a team of committed Salem, Oregon residents in organizing Stand’s first chapter, which remains active. In the more than decade since, Stand for Children has grown to include dozens of local chapters in nine state affiliates and become a leading advocate in the United States for better public schools. Stand for Children focuses on the following strategies for improving public schools:
- Getting great teachers and principals in every classroom and every school, giving educators the strong support, flexibility, and pay they need to do their best work, and making it easier to let teachers and principals go who, even with support, aren’t doing the job.
- Giving schools greater freedom to innovate while maintaining strong accountability.
- Expanding learning time, through a longer school day and year and providing high quality early childhood education.
- High school graduation standards that ensure high school graduates are ready for college or a career.
- Tests that truly measure what students know and how well they think.
- Data systems that measure students’ growth from year to year, show whether or not students are on track to graduate, and indicate how well schools and teachers are educating children.
- Effective intervention for chronically low-performing schools and struggling students.
In 2011, Stand for Children – and Edelman in particular – was cited in Time Magazine for “delivering results and changing how politicians think about grassroots education reform.” This acclaim was attributed to their work to improve school funding in Oregon, teacher evaluations in Colorado, and teacher policy in Illinois.
Recent Controversy
At the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 28,2011, Edelman was the center of a controversy due to remarks he made regarding recent concessions by teachers' unions leading to landmark education reform legislation in Illinois. While unions and legislators say they engaged in a collaborative effort in which all sides gave a little in an effort to improve Illinois’ schools, Edelman told attendees at the Festival, that, actually, he led a well-funded campaign that used lobbyists and shrewd political gamesmanship to pressure union leaders to give up their rights. “They essentially gave away every single provision related to teacher effectiveness that we had proposed — everything we had fought for in Colorado,” Edelman said in Aspen. “We hired 11 lobbyists, including four of the absolute best insiders and seven of the best minority lobbyists, preventing the unions from hiring them.” He further stated, “There was a palpable sense of concern if not shock on the part of the teachers’ unions of Illinois that Speaker [of the House Mike] Madigan had changed allegiance and that we had clear political capability to potentially jam this proposal down their throats the same way that pension reform had been jammed down their throats six months earlier."
Subsequent to this speech, a video of Edelman’s lecture went viral. Afterwards, he apologized for his “arrogance” in claiming his political manipulations alone passed the bill to the exclusion of unions’ contributions. The Illinois Education Association declined his apology.
Honors
- 2007: Ashoka: Innovators for the PublicAshoka: Innovators for the PublicAshoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of...
Fellowship - 2005: Hunt Alternatives FundHunt Alternatives FundHunt Alternatives Fund is a private family foundation located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded by sisters Swanee Hunt and Helen LaKelly Hunt in 1981, the Fund has contributed more than $80 million to social change worldwide....
Prime Mover - 1992: Rhodes ScholarshipRhodes ScholarshipThe Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
- 1992: Alpheus Henry Snow Prize, Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
External links
- Stand for Children
- Biography page at Stand for Children
- Ashoka Fellow profile page
- "Jonah Edelman: The Activist." Time Magazine profile.
- Quick and the ED podcast -- Podcast of Jay Mathews, Washington Post columnist and author, joined by Richard Barth, CEO of the KIPP Foundation and Jonah Edelman, executive director of Stand for Children, an advocacy group focusing on public education reform for the discussion. Education Sector’s Andrew Rotherham served as moderator.