What a fabulous story!
Chicago Public Schools, known for their love of charters, turned down a proposal to open two new Concept charters. The one existing Concept charter school in Chicago had unimpressive test scores. So Concept went to the Illinois State Charter School Commission and won their charters!
What a coup! How did it happen? Well, it seems that Concept charters are affiliated with the Turkish Gulen chain, the largest in the nation. And they have a very good friend: House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Madigan is “the South Side Democrat who’s a powerful advocate of Concept and the faith-based Gulen movement to which the schools are connected.”
Better yet, the Concept charters will get 33% more funding than other charters in Chicago!
Madigan really, really likes Turkey, and he truly likes the Gulen charters, too, according to the story by investigative journalist Dan Mihalopoulos.
“Madigan, who’s also the Illinois Democratic Party chairman, visited Concept’s Chicago Math and Science Academy last year. In a video the school posted on YouTube, Madigan praised the school, founded and run by Turkish immigrants.
“The speaker’s son Andrew Madigan also visited and filmed an endorsement of the CMSA campus at 7212 N. Clark St. Andrew Madigan works for Mesirow Insurance Services Inc., whose clients include CMSA and the two new, state-approved Concept schools in McKinley Park and Austin, according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
“The elder Madigan has ties to other Chicago Turkish immigrant groups that, like Concept, have connections to a worldwide movement led by Fethullah Gulen. He’s a politically powerful Muslim cleric from Turkey who moved to this country in 1999 shortly before being implicated in a plot to overthrow Turkey’s secular rulers and install an Islamic government — charges that were later dropped.
“Madigan has taken four trips in the past four years to Turkey as the guest of the Chicago-based Niagara Foundation — whose honorary president is Gulen — and the Chicago Turkish American Chamber of Commerce, according to disclosure reports the speaker has filed.
“State records show Madigan’s visits were among 32 trips lawmakers took to Turkey from 2008 through 2012. The speaker and members of his House Democratic caucus took 29 of those trips, which they described as “educational missions.”
Ah, the wonders of school reform, putting kids first.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The only thing worse than a Republican is a CORPORATE Democrat…
Don’t count on the State’s Attorney General investigating any improprieties. That’s Mike Madigan’s daughter, Amy Madigan. Nepotism and cronyism rule in the Land of Lincoln, Obama, Duncan, Emmanuel, etc… (And our last TWO governors went to prison for corruption, but they seem like small change compared to what’s going on these days.)
Lisa Madigan.
Sorry, you’re right. Amy Madigan is a Chicago actress –and unrelated, I think.
Lisa does not appear to be like her father. She seems to be a progressive and she fought the banks and their fraudulent mortgages.
Her father all but owns the state. Do you think she’s going to go up against him? Or any of his cronies?
Didn’t more than two Illinois governors go to prison?
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
And yet, Dick Manley, our IFT President, tells us we have to keep supporting anti-teacher politicians like the rotten Mr. Madigan. It would be nice to see both Madigan and Manley retire. Madigan shoved through SB 7, destroying teacher tenure, and giving Rheebots all they wanted. Madigan just pushed through the pension-slashing bill that will harm many public workers, not just teachers. He is as corrupt as a Kochbrother, and is quite happy that public schools – and public school teachers – are taking it on the chin.
Politically connected charters always get the contract in Ohio.
You have to remember the golden rule of government contractors. Their client is not the public. Their client is the politician giving them the contract, hence the trips to Turkey, etc.
I think the public school
Chiara, the trips to Turkey is not related to the contractors. It is related to Niagara Foundation, which is a religious based organization. This foundation “rewards” Mr. Madigan and his “guys” (and many other Illinois politicians) for the outstanding “service” they provide for Niagara Foundation and its affiliates, especially, for the Concept charter schools, which are all fiascos with their poor education system and administration/staffing policies. Thanks to the extravagant free Turkey trips for Mr. Madigan and many other Illinois politicians, Niagara Foundation not only opens many other charter schools, they also get enormous support and help from these gentlemen for their many other projects in this country.
I saw the Chicago paper is (belatedly) calling for ed reformers to give some consideration to kids in existing public schools when rubberstamping the flood of charter applicants.
My advice to public school parents is to get an advocate for your kid on that board, pronto.
Kids in public schools in Ohio haven’t fared very well under ed reformers. Our public schools have been completely abandoned.
First they close the “failing schools” then they pull funding from the strong public schools.
This isn’t a level playing field. You’ll need an advocate in government, like this Turkish charter chain has.
I did not see a place to post a comment on your other Gulen charter story about Kenilworth, etc.
But I did read the comments to a news story you linked to on that blog. It is very obvious to me that the commenters were Turkish- read their awful grammar!
The Gulen schools are one of the most disturbing aspects of the charter school virus in America. Either people are corrupt, ignorant, or just plain do not care about what is happening to education in America. I don’t care what foreign country or what religious cleric would be associated with charter schools. I would have a problem with any foreign country having this much influence.
America needs to wake up! Why are we selling our children (our future) off to a Turkish cleric?
Robert, I absolutely agree with you regarding those “schools.” They are viral and absolutely useless. They provide their “teachers” green cards (thanks to Mr. Madigan and his guys) and hire them. Then, they pay way less than other schools and plus get a portion of their pay check back as “donation.” I cannot believe that. Also, I cannot believe that how our government closes its eyes to this corruption. I really cannot!
The feds have most of the information on the Gulen organized crime here in the USA. They have Adem Arici in Federal Prison (and have subsequently closed down his Markets – Amish Markets) Adem’s market’s is where the money would be wired from. either to Turkey or to the school’s layer of front groups. The FBI didn’t raid the Gulen operated school in Louisana (Kenliworth) 2 weeks ago without having specific information what documents and computer hard drive. When the IRS wants their money, they don’t care about the politicians that were wined and dined by the Gulen Movement. Expect the American politicians to distant themselves from the movement. http://www.gulenpoliticians.blogspot.com Lisa Madigan or not. Doesn’t matter.
Alderman Joe Moore, in whose ward is the CMSA, took a trip to Turkey with his wife and two best friends in 2009 courtesy of the principal of CMSA. Then they gave his wife–who is Executive Director of Democratic Municipal Officials– a “consulting” job promoting trips to Turkey. My question: how many of those pols trips were organized by her?