Governor Bobby Jindal and John White are determined to keep protecting and expanding charter schools, as they press for the transfer of public funds to private entities.. That may explain why the state board of education renewed the charter of a Gulen-associated school that was under FBI investigation.
“The state Department of Education showed little interest in an ongoing federal probe into a Baton Rouge charter school even as the agency completed its own lengthy but much different examination to see if the school deserved to have its charter renewed, according to department records.
“The records were released to The Advocate in response to a public records request.
“The federal probe, which the state learned of by late spring 2012, is barely mentioned in the dozens of records the state has released about Kenilworth Science & Technology Charter School. The probe, which seemingly had been quiet for months, re-emerged Dec. 11 when the FBI raided the school six days after the agency renewed the Baton Rouge school’s charter through the year 2019.
“The search warrant, which The Advocate first disclosed Sunday, revealed that federal authorities have been seeking financial records from Kenilworth relating to nine companies. Most of these companies are owned by individuals of Turkish descent, and seven of them have done business with the school.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There are now about 150 Gulen affiliated Charters in the U S. NPR did a special report last Friday re Gulen influence here and globally. Certainly bears watching and leaves me wondering why they continue to be approved.
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It’s difficult to reconcile what we in the public were told about charters when charters were sold (20 years ago) with the reality of charters.
Remember? They would be small, local and innovative. Run by teachers, perhaps, with parent-partners.
Turns out they are national (and international, apparently), huge, and run with outsourced services and by management teams.
I don’t remember H-1B visas even being part of the debate! Must have missed that part.
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More often than not, they are also pedagogically regressive and authoritarian, especially the chains (KIPP, Success Academies, Uncommon Schools, etc.) that make up so many of the “miracle school” stories we are inundated with.
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“pedagogically regressive and authoritarian, especially the chains (KIPP, Success Academies, Uncommon Schools, etc.)”
I was reading some of the applicants in the Chicago charter takeover plan and one of them seemed small and local, “educate the whole child” sounded vaguely progressive.
I was thinking, “oh, you can forget THAT. Provide reams of charts and numbers plus a celebrity fundraising plan and growth strategy and maybe you’ll have a chance in hell of getting past Mayor 1% there” 🙂
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Chiara, if I am thinking about the same school it has been approved already. I think it would be much better for all public schools to have a quality arts program rather than one or two hipster charter schools thrown in the mix. It is not like Mayor Emmanuel can’t call up both Arne and the president and inform them that their policies stink if the goal is “whole child” education.
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When I first heard about the concept of Charter Schools, I was excited. I even participated in the development of a satellite school which then became a charter (started by a principal and an educator from UB – a SUNY schools). I imagined what it would be like to work at a school where the teachers had a say in the direction of the education within the building.
Silly me.
Instead we ended up with a funding fiasco for the public schools plus the takeover of charters by large, for profit organizations. Where were the innovations to help the inner city child? Certainly not military routines and corporal punishment. My fault for the disappointment, I had broken my own rule – “If it seems too good to be true, it’s not true.”
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Here in Boston, the BTU has a school it runs. It is not a charter, but a regular public school, run by teachers. It opened in September, 2009:
http://theunionschool.com/wp/about-the-school/
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How is this working out? Do they have to follow CCSS and take the assessments? Is this school allowed to be innovative (I couldn’t tell from the web site – it looked the same as other schools)? Are they remaining a K to 8 school, or looking to be K to 12?
The fact that they rely on Americorps volunteers is troubling. Is the district providing enough funding for the school to be adequately staffed? Besides foreign language, is there any other unusual program? Who is the clientele (low income or upscale families, white or minority or a combination, etc.)? How is the university involved?
I would like to see such a program work. The possibilities are endless – if the teachers truly have full control.
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Not only are the Gulen charter schools used for increasing the ranks of Gulen Movement members in the US (via H1B visas, as well as a lesser number of green cards) and for building loyalty to their brand, but they are keeping a growing fleet of their affiliated charter school support businesses in business. For example: businesses related to school facilities (purchasing, leasing, new construction, renovation); Gulenist publishing house Turkish language textbooks; school furniture suppliers; custodial service companies; food services; travel services (school buses plus international travel arrangements); website creation and maintenance, school computer sales and servicing, specialty computer software; fee-based tutoring companies; uniform suppliers, etc. All with non-transparent bidding. This deceptive and controversial group gets somewhere around $500 million/year from US taxpayers at this point. They have a strong drive to keep getting all those benefits — plus very deep pockets to cover legal and public relations firm costs — and will fight to keep every penny of it.
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Question: is it true, a has been reported elsewhere, that all of the Turks coming on Gulen H1B visas men? If so, how is it legal for an organization operating in America to exhibit gender bias in hiring? What message does it send to American students if all the authority figures in their school are male?
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All Gulen ‘teachers’ are men. Most are not credentialed. Portion of each salary gives back to Turkey. Those are tax dollars. Go to WWW Charterschoolscandals.com for more details.
Gulen says he works within the circulatory system until there is enough power to overthrow….
Follow current Turkey news .. much unrest and Gulen is a major figure even as he resides in the Pocono Mountains of Penna.
One of his charters is on an airfirce base in Arizona and there have been attempts to locate at Greatlakes naval air and possibly others. WHY IS THIS ALLOWED? ???
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Our local Gulen school has almost all Turks on the staff, although faculty don’t seem to be listed on their webpage. In fact, not much is listed on their webpage. https://www.putnamscience.org
One non-Turkish local woman that I know taught there very briefly when they first opened several years ago and left in disgust.
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polly: Putnam Science Academy is NOT a charter school. It is one of the five private K-12 schools operated by the Gulen Movement, and is a boarding school filled with a lot of older boys from Turkey. The other Gulen private schools are Science Academy of Chicago in IL, Pinnacle Academy in VA, Brooklyn Amity School in NY, Pioneer Academy in NJ.
Women are brought over on visas, but very few. They are usually married to men working at the schools who the schools want to hire, too.
Always remember that these people are not just Turkish people (although they represent themselves as such), but rather members of a secretive and controversial religious subgroup within Turkey. A very small number are Turkic, most of whom were drawn into the movement when they attended the Gulen Movement’s schools in Central Asia, the Caucasus, or the Balkans.
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Are any Principals at these schools women, African American, Hispanic or are they only Turkish men?
Has Gov. Jindal gone on one of the junkets to Turkey? How many Louisiana politicians have been on these junkets?
Has Arne Duncan been on a junket?
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Our local Harmony school has promoted an American woman teacher to be an assistant principal. Many parents had already complained about her unprofessional behavior and were shocked to learn that she was promoted only months later. A few of us that volunteered at the school would hear her frequently state she would do anything to keep her job. Also, I caught the principal and the promoted teacher lying big time on a few occasions. Discrimination against non-Turkish teachers was rampant. We pulled our child out of Harmony because of the many questionable practices from the administration.
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One would think that Republican politicians would fear the wrath of their base in all of this. I guess they figure that they can simply obfuscate when the time comes and pretend that Obama made them do it.
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someone needs to look into the h1b visa program for teachers. I hear charters and even some districts are now top visa issuers behind microsoft, et al. 100 visas were revoked in Baltimore but only beause the school system illegally required the immigrants to pay their visa fees, a paltry 3000 dollars/year. These teachers are trafficked through recuitment companies that collect a high fee.
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Most disgusting!
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Do you think the investigation might be due to money laundering? Just a thought.
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