Bill Phillis, retired deputy superintendent of the state department of education, is a zealous advocate for accountability and transparency. He has made a public records request about the Gulen charter schools in Ohio. He has written a multi-part series based on what he learned. This is Part 1.
Public Records and Charter Schools – Part One
Since the beginning of the charter school experiment in Ohio nearly 20 years ago, many questions have been raised about the nature of these schools inasmuch as nearly all are managed by private companies and have hand-picked, unelected governing boards. During the next several days, we will detail an attempt by the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding (Ohio E&A) to find out more about a few of these publicly-funded but privately-operated schools.
Consistent with the Ohio Public Records Law, Ohio E&A sent a request to review all records from 2008 to the present held by the Ohio Department of Education as well as two other organizations that are sponsors of a national charter school chain. The request asked for records that were pertinent to “the operation and oversight” of 17 charter schools in Ohio that are managed by Concept Schools, a charter school management organization located in Chicago. The schools are part of the so-called Gulen network, named for a Turkish cleric who has helped to establish a national charter chain composed of about 167 schools. This chain operates schools under the Horizon Science Academy and Noble Academy brands in Ohio. According to some experts, this means that the Gulen Schools represent the second-largest charter chain in the nation, with only the K12 Inc. chain being larger by total student enrollment.
These schools have been a subject of controversy for years inasmuch as news reports have shown that they are staffed with many Turkish immigrants, while other staff positions have also been filled by Turkish nationals who are in the country on the basis of H1B visas. Critics have said that every foreign national hired at a Gulen charter school is one less job available for a fully licensed, highly-qualified teacher.
In 2014, some of the Gulen Schools were the subject of raids by the FBI, and records were removed from schools across the country. Three of the schools were in Ohio.
The public’s access to records is an important part of open government and transparency. In June, Denis Smith, a retired consultant in the Ohio Department of Education’s charter school office, wrote an Op-Ed in the Columbus Dispatch in support of Ohio E&A’s request for public records and voiced his displeasure about the slow response from the two public agencies in acknowledging receipt of the request for records. The response from the third agency, a non-profit organization, will be explored further in Part Four of this series.
This week, we will report what we found and could not find in the public records released to us since Ohio E&A sent the request asking for information which the public has a right to know. Based on a review of those records, we will also put forward some needed charter reforms to promote greater transparency and accountability for the authorizers or sponsors of these privately-operated schools.
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