IN HIS June 18 op-ed column “Group brings new savvy to ed debate,’’ Lawrence Harmon celebrated the re-emergence in Massachusetts of Stand for Children, which is flush with business and foundation money to advance its corporate education reform agenda: testing, test prep, charter schools, and evaluation of teachers based on student test scores.

We are told that Stand for Children is fresh from a victory in Illinois, where tough lobbying tactics and a $3.5 million war chest helped push just such an evaluation plan through the state Legislature.

The re-emergence of Stand for Children would be great news for our children if studies supported its positions, including its inequitable and ineffective teacher evaluation plan. A study by Vanderbilt University in 2010 concluded such an approach is not effective.

The educational history of Stand for Children leader Jonah Edelman is instructive. He attended the exclusive Sidwell Friends School in Washington, where President Obama sends his children. Recently, a faculty member at Sidwell Friends was quoted as saying that the school does not consider student test scores helpful in determining a teacher’s effectiveness.

Every child has a right to the same thoughtful, creative education that Edelman received at the hands of teachers who weren’t shackled to incessant fill-in-the-bubble standardized testing. Kids deserve better from those who claim to stand for them.

Bill Schechter Brookline The writer is a retired public school teacher.