The Lancaster school board unanimously rejected a charter for the Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship Charter School.
The school wanted a charter for K-12 but intended to open only with K-4.
The charter pons ores plan to appeal o a state board, which can overturn the local decision.
Earlier articles noted that this charter is part of the Gulen network, the nation’s largest charter chain, which is affiliated with a reclusive Muslim cleric who lives in the Poconos but controls a political movement in Turkey. Typically the boards of Gulen schools are composed entirely of Turkish men, and many of their teachers are Turkish.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Busniess and entrepreneurship? For elementary school kids?
What a spectactular bit of nincompoopery.
So our kids are being traded on Wall Street for profit.
So much is wrong with Gulen. In the old days, after a 60 Minutes piece (May 2012) you could have expected an investigation. Public monies, importing English teachers from Turkey and possible HB-1 visa violations and immigration fraud. Cripes! What’s happened to us?
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7408162n
CIA, CHARTER SCHOOLS, AL-QAEDA…….YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Teaching as CIA Cover–Gülen Charter Schools, Dan Burton, and State Secrets
Last edited Fri Aug 10, 2012, 07:12 AM USA/ET – Edit history (1)
Background to the article: Followers of the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen operate the largest number of charter schools in the US — larger than KIPP or Green Dot or any other chain operation.
Besides noting U.S. charter school connections to the Fethullah Gülen Movement during her testimony in the Schmidt v. Krikorian case in Ohio on August 8, 2009,* former FBI language specialist-turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds…alleges a 1990s U.S./ Gülen al-Qaeda operation in Central Asian and a bribery scheme involving Indiana’s own U.S. House member Dan Burton.
FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE, GO TO http://WWW.DEMOCRATICUNDERGROUND.COM
Charters were never meant to be boutique schools that catered to a certain part of the public. They were suppose to be alternatives to public schools that weren’t doing their jobs.
As a resident of Lancaster and a teacher in the School District of Lancaster,
I am so happy this decision was made. There were several board meetings, apparently one got pretty heated. The rep for the charter school got angry and tried to blame it on an energy drink. The tactics used to get support from the community were questionable, too. People signed on, thinking they were supporting education in general, but withdrew support once they realized the truth. Here is a link to another article, with some interesting comments. The letter Brian includes is quite enlightening, I think: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/822595_Charter-school-proposal-draws-friends-and-foes-to-SDL-school-board-meeting.html#comment-833958428
Our mayor also spoke against the school.
Missed that this was posted–thanks, Diane. As I replied on a different thread, the school board’s response is scathing and thorough. You can read it here: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/828342_Text-of-Lancaster-school-board-s-decision-on-Academy-of-Business-and-Entrepreneurship-Charter-School-.html It boggles the mind that they thought they could simply push this through without a fight–typically assuming that in a high poverty, financially strapped district, no one would notice, I guess. We did and we fought (rescinding letters of support, petitions, endlessly calling every politician in our community, circulating petitions) and we are ready to fight at the state level–an amazing group of parents, teachers, community members who are passionate about Lancaster, our kids and public education.