Progress Ohio reports that the many thousands of secret government cables released by Wikileaks contained references to the Gulen charter schools, a number of which are being investigated by the FBI for unknown reasons. The Gulen charter chain is the largest in the nation.

State Dept. Notified CIA, National Security Council About Suspicious Charter School Visas

The U.S. State Department raised serious and repeated concerns about Turkish charter schools in America, sending cables to the CIA, Secretary of Defense and the President’s National Security Council. Special attention was paid to the large number of Turkish nationals with questionable credentials seeking visas to teach at schools such as Ohio’s Horizon Science Academies, which are linked to a controversial Islamic faith leader.

A review of over one hundred diplomatic cables made available at WikiLeaks found numerous warnings about underqualified applicants for teaching visas. One cable states that applicants “might be using the reputation of the school as a cover to get to the US.” Another, ominously observed there is “considerable debate” about whether members of their faith movement were “a threat to secular governments.”

Background

Fethullah Gulen is an exiled Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania. He is currently the subject of an extradition request[1] on charges of espionage and attempting to overthrow the Turkish government.[2] Gulen has millions of well-organized followers in central Asia and his organization is said to have “some of the characteristics of a cult.”[3] Gulen’s followers founded and administer a number of charter schools, including Ohio’s Horizon Science & Noble Academies.

These schools import the majority of their administration staff and many of their teachers on work visas from Turkey and neighboring countries. Secret diplomatic cables show that the “evasiveness” of the applicants and their “uneven at best” qualifications left State Department employees “uneasy.”They voiced these concerns to the top levels of government and even suggested the Department of Homeland Security should investigate the schools.

Memos Back Ohio Teacher Testimonies

Teachers who had worked at Dayton’s Horizon Science Academy made headlines last month when they told the state school board about apparent test tampering, attendance padding, Turish teachers who could barely speak English and even an incident when parents were not told their adolescent children were caught having oral sex at a school function.

Many of the teachers’ observations are supported by the cables. In one memo, the US consulate observed Turkish visa applicants with an “inability to speak English” and a “lack of understanding of basic math concepts (when they were going to teach math or science subjects).”

In another memo, federal officials note that Gulen schools in Turkmenistan can only employ teachers who are “fully qualified in the field.’’ Teachers employed by traditional public schools in Ohio must have a college degree and teach in the area or grade level in which they are licensed. Ohio charter schools, however, are exempt from that requirement

This led ProgressOhio Executive Director Brian Rothenberg to ask, “Why are Ohio charter schools not required to employ only qualified teachers?Taxpayers should be outraged these schools are hiring teachers who aren’t even qualified to teach in their home countries.”

Rothenberg continued, “America’s top intelligence and diplomatic personnel confirmed what a panel of Ohio teachers told the state board of education: Many of the teachers and administrators at these schools are unqualified, and students and taxpayers are suffering because of it. The only entity that doesn’t seem to understand the severity of the problem is the state school board.’’

Excerpts from Secret Cables

Over a quarter million previously secret diplomatic cables were published by WikiLeaks. ProgressOhio review approximately one hundred of them referencing Fethullah Gulen and found the following:

“There is considerable debate whether the Gulen movement represents a threat to secular governments. Skeptics argue the Gulenists seek to transform societies from the inside-out by developing sympathetic elites in a country’s government and business circles. […] Gulenists’ penchant for secrecy raises questions. For example, Gulenists seeking U.S. visas at the Embassy often are evasive about their religious views and their work-related duties in the U.S. (NOTE: Many U.S. visa applicants at the Embassy seek to work at Gulenist-linked schools in the U.S.)”[4]

“…there are concerns that Gulenist charter schools in the U.S. are capitalizing on the local successes to petition for visas for marginally qualified temporary workers.”[5]

“While on the surface a benign humanitarian movement, the ubiquitous evasiveness of Gulenist applicants — coupled with what appears to be adeliberate management of applicant profiles over the past several years — leaves Consular officers uneasy, an uneasiness echoed within Turkey by those familiar with the Gulenists.”[6]

[I]n summer/fall of 2008, the consular section received a number of visa applications for highly-skilled temporary workers (H1B) to go teach in charter schools in the U.S. The applicants all had in common a tie to a Gulenist school, either in Turkey or in Turkmenistan. Their qualifications were uneven at best. Some were bona fide teachers with several years of experience and advanced degrees. Others claimed teaching experience by assisting, volunteering, or substituting at a Gulenist school (language center or high school) in Turkmenistan. These minimally-qualified applicants prompted further investigation, and it turns out that the charter schools in the U.S. are also part of the broader Gulenist movement. The minimally-qualified applicants, petitions were returned to DHS for revocation based on a lack of qualifications, such as theirinability to speak English, possession of degrees not related to the subjects that they intended to teach and further lack of understanding of basic math concepts (when they were going to teach math or science subjects).[7]

On the other hand, we are concerned by the link with charter schools in the U.S. that have petitioned for marginally-qualified H1B candidates … These applicants were simply not convincing…might be using the reputation of the school as a cover to get to the [United States]. Post, after discussions with others in the region that see similar applicants, recommends that these H1B candidates receive a high degree of scrutiny before any visas are approved…. Further, Consular Affairs, Fraud Prevention might, in concert with the Department of Homeland Security, wish to investigate or audit these Turkish-run charter schools in the U.S. for compliance with U.S. immigration law.[8]

Deregulation sounds like a swell idea. Get rid of all those government regulations and innovation will flourish. That’s the theory.

But many regulations serve important purposes, especially where taxpayer dollars are concerned; they screen out unqualified people; they monitor how the money is spent; they prevent frauds and scams. Take away regulation, take away government oversight, and the door will be open to the greedy and the opportunistic.

We saw that in the financial sector, where companies like Enron and Madoff used lax regulation to profit at the expense of investors.

When the same ideas of deregulation are imported from business to education, the conviction that an unfettered market will unleash innovation and success–the results are predictable. We should know by now that these principles don’t work in education (and some would argue that the spectacular collapse of the economy in 2008 proved they don’t work in business either.)

What the unfettered free market allows into education is unqualified leadership and lax oversight. How can anyone argue that this strategy will improve education? A few schools may prosper but many will flounder and fail.

Here is the story of FCI Academy charter school, which was founded by Bishop Edgar Allen Posey, his wife, and a third person. The campus is on the grounds of Bishop Posey’s church, the Living Faith Apostolic Church in Columbus. The school was in financial trouble, and it fired 17 staff members. It plans to open again this fall.

The fired teachers were skeptical:

“Some of the laid-off teachers doubted that kids will be getting a quality education next year at FCI.

“It’s just been mass chaos,” said Tina Geygan, who is one of the teachers let go. “We were having kids drop out like flies.”

“Annette McFarland, a middle-school science teacher at FCI who also was laid off, said she can’t see how the school could reopen in the fall.

“Just my own personal opinion, but I don’t know how they can,” having lost so many of the staff members, McFarland said.

“Blair Miller, who taught at the school under a one-year substitute-teaching license, said he can’t imagine the school hiring anyone for less than the former staff members were making. The father of three made $25,000 a year, putting him close to officially living in poverty.

“You can’t pay very much lower,” said Miller, 25, who took the FCI job right out of college with an education degree. “I’m going to be honest with you, I was hired to be paraprofessional, but I was teaching a full-time class.”

“Miller taught middle school language arts and math, he said.

“According to its 2012-13 state report card, FCI spent 44.8 percent of its revenue on classroom instruction, compared with a state average of 67.5 percent. The school met 6 out of 24 state performance standards, earning an F. It scored a D on its performance index, which gives credit for how many students scored well on proficiency tests despite the overall standards met.”

Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition explains here what the failure of the FCI Academy charter school means for Ohio.

“FCI Academy charter school is another poster child to prompt state and federal agencies to expand investigations to all charter schools

The July 25 Dispatch article-Charter lays off 17 but plans to reopen-is about a charter school in financial trouble, but accompanying details in the article signal a need for a full-scale investigation.

FCI charter school is on the campus of Living Faith Apostolic Church in Columbus. It was founded by the Church’s leader, his wife and one other person. The Church leader’s wife is president of the school’s board. There may be something wrong with this picture. It doesn’t pass the smell test-Church leader’s wife is president of the board and the school is housed on Church property. 3314.03(A)(11)(c) of the Ohio Revised Code states: “The school will be nonsectarian in its programs, admission policies, employment practices, and all other operations, and will not be operated by a sectarian school or religious institution.”

In recent weeks the Horizon Science Academies, managed by Concept Schools, a Gulen Islamic-associated company, has been the target of state and federal investigations in Ohio and in many other states. Investigations should be extended to all charter schools beginning with the for-profits, such as White Hat, ECOT, Ohio Virtual Academy operated by K-12, Inc. and Imagine Schools.

Charter schools in Ohio spent over $900 million of funds belonging to public school districts. In most cases, there has been scant scrutiny of these publicly-funded, private, and in most cases, secretly-operated quasi-education organizations. It is time for ODE and the sponsors of these charter schools to give taxpayers the facts about these stealthy operations.

The governor’s office and the Ohio Department of Education, who have recently been concerned about four teachers and their role in exposing alleged illegal practices at a Dayton Gulen charter school, also need to explain how the FCI Academy is compliant with state laws that govern the formation, operation, and performance of schools that serve Ohio children. Hopefully the answer citizens receive about these questions is as swift as the attacks generated by the governor’s office and ODE on the four courageous charter school teachers and their role as whistleblowers.”

William Phillis
Ohio E & A
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Bill Phillis of the Ohio Coalition for Education and dequacy writes:

The Ohio Department of Education will limit investigation to one Gulen Horizon Science Academy charter school.

After four former teachers in a Dayton Horizon Science Academy charter school testified on July 15 regarding serious irregularities in that school setting, some state board of education members called on the Department of Education (ODE) to investigate the whole chain of Gulen charter schools that operate in Ohio. ODE, however, has announced that only the Dayton charter school will be investigated.

Perhaps ODE officials are not aware:
that the FBI recently raided three Ohio Gulen charter schools and a total of 19 in various states.

that Los Angeles United School District is investigating the network of eight Gulen charter school authorized by that District. The investigation involves charter school funds being used for immigration costs, loans to the management company, some of which were not repaid.

of the FBI raid on the Des Plaines, IL headquarters of Concept Schools, the management company for Horizon Science Academies (Search and Seizure warrant, Case No. 14MZ87, dated June 17, 2014).
that some Horizon Science Academy board members refuse to respond to questions about their citizenship
that Concept schools have attempted to import nearly 400 Turkish teachers, arguing that Ohio’s workforce lacks high quality educators to fill positions.

The issues surrounding the Concept charter school chain, (Horizon Science Academies and Noble Science Academies) are systemic. ODE should be investigating the entire chain. The members of the State Board of Education, by virtue of their constitutional oath, are duty bound to force ODE to investigate, not only the Gulen chain, but all of charterland.

The lack of transparency and accountability inherent in Ohio charter school law should prompt the State Board of Education to fill the void by aggressively pursuing the misdeeds of charters.

William Phillis
Ohio E & A

Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215