George Joseph reports in “Jacobin” about “widespread corruption” in Gulen charter schools, one of the narion’s largest charter chains. The Gulen schools have different names but all have boards composed of Turkish men and ties to an Islamic cleric who lives in seclusion in Pennsylvania and leads a political movement in Turkey.

Joseph writes:

“Over the summer, FBI agents stormed nineteen charter schools as part of an
ongoing investigation into Concept Charter Schools. They raided the
buildings seeking information about companies the prominent Midwestern
charter operator had contracted with under the federal E-Rate program.

“The federal investigation points to possible corruption at the Gulen
charter network, with which Concept is affiliated and which takes its name
from the Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen. And a Jacobin investigation found
that malfeasance in the Gulen network, the second largest in the country,
is more widespread than previously thought. Federal contracting documents suggest that the conflict-of-interest transactions occurring at Concept are a routine practice at other Gulen-affiliated charter school operators.

“The Jacobin probe into Gulen-affiliated operators in Texas, Arizona, Utah,
Nevada, and California found that roughly $4 million in E-Rate contract
disbursements and $1.7 million in Department of Education Race to the Top grantee awards were given to what appear to be “related parties.” Awarding contracts to firms headed by related parties would seem to violate the FCC’s requirement that the school’s bidding process be “competitive” as
well as “open and fair.”