In recent weeks, Oakland has been roiled by a charter school scandal. The principal of a Gulen charter school left for Australia, with $450,000 in severance pay. Board members say they didn’t realize that his contract allowed for three years pay as severance.
Gulen charter schools always deny that they are Gulen charter schools. They claim to be independent. Others, however, know they are Gulen schools because most or all of the board members are Turkish, most of the staff are Turkish teachers working on visas, and most of the contracts are awarded to Turkish firms.
A few years back, “60 Minutes” did a special in which a teacher alleged that he was required to remit 40% of his salary as payment to the Gulen movement. Fethullah Gulen is an imam from Turkey who lives in seclusion in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He was an ally of Recip Erdogan, the strongman who rules Turkey with an iron hand, but then they had a falling-out. Erdogan blames Gulen for an attempted coup and wants the U.S. to extradite him. The U.S. refuses. Meanwhile, Gulen has oversight of nearly 200 charter schools across the U.S. that have replaced public schools.
The former principal of the Oakland BayTech charter school admitted that the school is a Gulen charter and that the school turned over large sums of taxpayers’ money to the Gulen headquarters.
This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a leader of a Gulen school admitted that the school was part of the Gulen network.
Caprice Young, the first CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, took charge of the Magnolia charter chain, a Gulen chain, when it was in financial distress, and she too denies that the Gulen schools are Gulen schools. But most of those who do not work for a Gulen charter acknowledge that Gulen charters are Gulen charters and rely heavily on Turkish teachers who use special HB-1 visas.
What is remarkable in the Oakland BayTech story is that the principal said, “Yes, we are a Gulen charter. Yes, we do give kickbacks to Fethullah Gulen.”
Hatipoglu denies that he stole from BayTech or altered his contract. But the former principal said all the allegations about BayTech’s links to the Gülen movement are true.
Public records support some of Hatipoglu’s claims.
“The school gave Turkish teachers employment because the school applies for their visas, and when they give donations, they get to work,” said Hatipoglu. “I told [BayTech’s board] I’d no longer do this because there have been so many allegations, and the Turkish government is looking into it.”
Hatipoglu is one of the first high-level administrators of a Gülen school to describe the ways the movement allegedly extracts money from the many charter schools its followers operate.
The Gülen movement is led by an elderly Turkish imam named Fethullah Gülen who lives in exile in Pennsylvania. Gülen and his thousands of followers around the world have been labeled terrorists by the Turkish government. In recent years, Turkish intelligence agents have fanned out across at least 18 nations to spy on, and sometimes seize, Gülenists and take them back to Turkey where they are jailed and tortured, according to recent reports in The New York Times and other media.
Critics of the Gulen movement are called “racists” or anti-Islamic. Critics of Gulen are routinely assailed as “anti-Islamic” but Erdogan is Islamic, so no one can say that all his critics are biased against his religion.
I am not biased against Gulen or his religion. I think that it is ridiculous to outsource American public schools to representatives of a foreign entity, whether it is Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, or Nigeria. Are we not capable in this country of running our own public schools? If one of the major purposes of public education is to teach citizenship, how can that responsibility be outsourced?
Gulen needs to be extradicted. So sick of Gulen. We have agents of foreign powers taking down our fragile democracy.
The only “democracy” Gulen is accused of trying to take down is Turkey’s authoritarian regime under Erdogan. That’s the same dictator who indiscriminately imprisoned thousands of teachers, journalists, police, and civil servants after the coup attempt.
I’m no fan of Erdogan – as far as I’m concerned, lock him and Gulen in a room together with a hungry lion and may the best man win. But just because Erdogan is evil does not make Gulen innocent or good. Gulen is most definitely interfering with our democracy with his charter “schools” and his bribes to politicians in the form of junkets to Turkey, etc.
Gulen Movement is taking themselves done suing each other, embezzling, skimming, using school credit cards. Look at their school in Republic of Georgia http://oc-media.org/georgian-gulen-connected-university-banned-from-taking-in-new-students/
And the Hasidic schools in New York ??????
Hasidic schools of NY are privately funded not robbing American taxtaxpayers
See the shenanigans of the Hasidic community in relation to the public schools in East Ramapo District NY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Ramapo_Central_School_District
The Hasidic community in East Ramapo controls the elected school board but its children do not attend public schools. The board uses every opportunity to divert public funds to their own religious schools. They cut the budget for the public schools attended by the poor black and brown children of their district.
a crucial point
Gulen conducts a comprehensive campaign to recruit Americans to political propaganda trips to Turkey under the guise of cultural exchanges. They target rising elected officials and grassroots activists. We had a Gulen charter in New Orleans that closed in2011.
“Board members say they didn’t realize that his contract allowed for three years pay as severance.”
How damn dumb are these people? It is their job to know what was in the contract with the Principal. These people should be totally held accountable waste of taxpayers dollars.
The question is rather simple. It is the same question that arises when public money go anywhere else. Exactly where did the money go, and how was it used to benefit the public?
Private contractors are building a road near my house. State inspectors are on the job daily. They drive up and down, periodically measuring the depth and nature of the asphalt. In his way, the state assures that it is getting what it pays for.
Education is admittedly more difficult. There is no asphalt to analyze. Is writing this post a part of my job as a professional? How about the hours I spend looking for the right quote from Rousseau? Or perhaps the hours spent on how I want to use that video on the revolutions of 1848? My answer, of course, would be yes to all three activities.
Assuming that Gulen is not a monster, should his or any other shadow economy be allowed to make money from the process of American education? Who could answer this question in the affirmative? If my principle were to take some of my salary as a condition of my employment and use it to buy an Angus bull, the community would show up at the doors of the school with a length of rope and pull him to the nearest oak. Auditors catch educational miscreants every day. If we cannot audit Gulen, we should pull the plug on all the public money going to these shadow schools.
The only way to do this is to spend huge amounts of money on oversight of private schools that get public money. This will render them too expensive, I imagine, and the process will cease. That would be a good start.
Somebody in this country must be shielding Gulen from scrutiny. The Turks are going to investigate the allegations. Why do the Americans do nothing?
Multiple politicians have been the beneficiaries of largesse from Gulen including trips to Turkey. I’m guessing campaign donations have been in there too.
Don’t depend on any politician for action, the gulen schools that have closed, 100s of applications denied or not renewed were because citizens: teachers, parents, concerned citizens stood up and testify against them at local school boards that oversee them. Americans lost their guts and need to ban together and show up to school board meetings remind board members they work for you.
Rumor is that Gulen has ties to the CIA. He got fast-tracked for asylum in the US after turning against the govt in Turkey.
Oops.
I’d bet Gulen is now madly Google searching for a tropical island where he can spend the remainder of his life sipping Pina Coladas (non alcoholic, of course)on the beech
Sure beats what awaits him back in Turkey if his welcome in the US is revoked.
“On the beach”, not the beech (tree)
Unless Erdoğan finds him first!
Film maker Mark Hall made a documentary about the Gulen schools. He tried to interview Gulen and drove up to his compound. It is surrounded by guards. No one gets to see Gulen.
But you can see Mark Hall’s documentary “Killing Ed.” Look for it online.
I learned from the film that the Gulen schools have a 100% college acceptance rate in Houston because they started a college that accepts every one of their high school graduates.
I think the CIA does support Fethullah Gülen and his movement and the way they fund him is by allowing him to run these schools like he does. When someone comes sniffing, the CIA uses its dark, hidden power to block and stop the sniffing to protect the foreign agent they think is going to help them do what since historically, most of these guys end up stabbing the US in the back later on?
The CIA and the FBI (and probably other US intelligence/police agencies) have a long history of working with and funding criminals to catch other or bigger criminals even when the criminals they are supporting are still committing crimes.
Bingo!
Yes CIA has managed them via Graham Fuller who was their main contact. It was under #OperationGladio #WhoIsGrahamFuller #HeroinGulenCIA #CharterSchoolFraud #VisaFraud
There is reason to believe the project is toward the tail end after years of stealing billions. Just recently the past superintendent of Texas Harmony Schools Dr. Soner Tarim tried to sneak in as a consultant for new LEAD Academy of Alabama. Stopped DEAD in its track by THE PEOPLE you can win stand up to this sham it’s not just our money it’s our children and national security as Gulen schools are now on 2 Military bases: NELLIS Air force base and Davis-Monthan AFB ( Coral Academy of Science and Sonoran Science Academy) they were kicked out of Mokapu AFB and Great Lakes Military base by the military families. You can do it.
The only thing these charter schools have accomplished is reading everyday some CEO stealing millions and getting away with it.
Please remember that this is your tax dollar going to the gulen movement and not to your local free and public neighborhood school.
This charter was just unanimously renewed by Oakland’s school in January. Why has NPE endorsed Shanthi Gonzales for Oakland school even though she voted to approve this Gulen charter school?
Shanthi said she never voted to approve a new charter. She did vote for a renewal.
That charter should be closed and its students returned to public schools.
Like all charters.
Amen, Diane! Gulen is particularly onerous, though, as this money is being funneled into illicit matters concerning another country–as far away from our kids & public schools as the money could possible get. Whatever happened w/the several FBI raids on some of the schools? (Actually, as commenters stated above…nothing.)
Meaning…we DO have to get out there in droves & protest this gross misuse of taxpayer education funding meant for PUBLIC schools.