The Republican-dominated State Board of Education in Massachusetts approved a Gulen charter school in the Springfield area. 

The Mayor of Springfield is not happy about it. He read Robert Amsterdam’s exhaustive report about the Gulen schools “Empire of Deceit”), and he knows that the public schools will lose funding to this charter chain operated by allies of the Fethullah Gulen Movement.

Of course, the Gulen charter school says it is not a Gulen school at all. It is just happenstance that the CEO of the school is a Turkish national. Gulen schools always deny any connection to Gulen, who now has a charter chain of about 160 schools. As usual, follow the money. If the landlord is Turkish, if contracts for construction go to Turkish firms, if a significant number of its teachers are Turkish, if the majority of the board is Turkish, it is a Gulen school. Chances are, as one fallen-away Gulen teacher told 60 Minutes, that the teachers are tithing their salary to Gulen. And th school is paying rent to a Gulen Corporation.

The mayor understands that the charter will drain funding from the local public schools, where the overwhelming majority of children are enrolled.

Why do we allow a religious sect to operate what are supposed to be public schools?

In 2016, the voters of Massachusetts overwhelmingly rejected a state referendum to expand the number of charter schools in the state. Why is the State Board still increasing their number? The chair of the State Board donated large sums to the pro-charter side. He lost.

Is the State Board determined to undermine one of the top-performing states in the nation?