Stand for Children's mission is "to ensure all students receive a high quality, relevant education, especially those whose boundless potential is overlooked and under-tapped because of their skin color, zip code, first language, or disability.

Stand for Children, which is described under section 501(c)(4) is the grassroots advocacy group that works to mobilize concerned citizen activists at the local and state level to convince elected officials and voters to pass education reforms.

Stand helped secure the passage and full funding of Measure 98 in Oregon, which provides $303 million to enable the state's school districts to expand evidence-based dropout prevention strategies, career technical education pathways, college credit courses, and post-secondary counseling.

Critics of the group assert that it represents business interests[20][21]—major funders include the Walton Family and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations.

Education policy analyst Diane Ravitch criticized the group for opposing teacher's unions and seeking to impose standardized testing on public schools.

[22] Susan Barrett, former volunteer co-leader of a Stand for Children team in Portland, Oregon, left the organization due to concerns that corporate donors and wealthy board members influence reforms.

Former Stand for Children volunteers said the ballot measure puts the careers of teachers at the mercy of a rating system while doing nothing to improve teaching in schools.

[24] Regarding Stand For Children's success in Illinois, Edelman stated: "They essentially gave away every single provision related to teacher effectiveness that we had proposed—everything we had fought for in Colorado.

[30] These funds, donated by a small number of businesspeople giving hundreds of thousands of dollars each, led detractors question the organization's grassroots support in the state.