 |
| State Senator Kimberly Lightford
PRINGFIELD — Reigniting a debate over the reach of charter schools, the
Senate moved Friday to abolish a controversial state panel empowered to
resurrect charter-school applications that had been rejected earlier by local
school systems.
The measure sponsored by Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, passed the
Senate 34-22 and now goes back to the House for possible action next week.
Her plan would abolish the State Charter School Commission, which Lightford
said had become politicized in its primary function of deciding whether to
overturn decisions by school boards that had rejected charter-school
applications.
Under the legislation, that panel’s authority would shift to a newly
created board to be impaneled by state schools Supt. Christopher Koch, with
final decisions on rejected charter-school applications resting with the State
Board of Education.
Lightford accused the commission of having worked with rejected applicants
to strengthen their applications and thus help them open, which she maintained
was not the purpose of the panel.
“We don’t need a charter school commission that’s trying to encourage more
charter school applicants who have bad applications,” Lightford told her
colleagues.
“You don’t want a bad school coming to your district. You don’t. If they
don’t qualify, then you don’t want them in your school district. It’s unfair
the city of Chicago is getting flooded with all these charter schools that
aren’t performing,” Lightford said.
Lawmakers and Gov. Pat Quinn created the state charter commission in 2011.
It was given the power to override local schools officials who reject
applications for new charter schools and force taxpayers to fund charters that
it allows to open.
The commission exercised that power for the first time last year, clearing
Des Plaines-based Concept Schools to open two new charter campuses that Chicago
Public Schools officials had rejected.
The Sun-Times reported in December that Turkish-American nonprofit groups
with ties to Concept Schools have hosted House Speaker Michael Madigan
(D-Chicago) and many other Illinois lawmakers on trips to Turkey in recent
years.
And records show the state charter commission’s Springfield lobbyist is Liz
Brown-Reeves — a former Madigan aide who accompanied lawmakers on
their trip to Turkey in 2012.
A Madigan spokesman said in December that the speaker did not see any need
to scrap the commission. But Madigan abstained when the House voted 78-33
on an earlier version of the legislation in March.
The proposal would put the commission out of business on July 1.
Since it came into being, the commission has received most of its funding
from private organizations that frequently and heavily contribute to the
charter-school cause. That included $200,000 from the Walton Family Foundation,
linked to the founders of Wal-Mart.
But many labor leaders and local school district officials have not been
fans of the commission.
At the January meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, Chicago Teachers
Union President Karen Lewis said of the commission: “I will sit on that table
with you, begging and screaming to get rid of that law. I bet you if we worked
on that together, Springfield would respond.”
School Board President David Vitale replied, “Let’s join hands.”
A school district in Gurnee sued last week to reverse the commission’s
recent decision to re-authorize the Prairie Crossing Charter School. Schools
officials there alleged that the commission-approved charter campus siphons
funding intended for the district’s “at risk” students to serve middle-class white
or Asian children.
|
Concept Schools, Gulen Charter Schools Midwest operations
DISCLAIMER:If you find some videos are disabled this is a result of Gulen Censorship and filing of fake copyright infringements to Utube.
Showing posts with label Gulen Concept Schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gulen Concept Schools. Show all posts
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Gulen Charter Schools in Illinois effected by new law to abolish state charter school commission
Friday, December 27, 2013
STOP Gulen in USA politics and Education STOP CONCEPT SCHOOLS
http://stopconceptinc.tumblr.com/
Learn more how you can be a part of taking down the Gulen Stench in the USA.
Lets send the Gulen Movement packing back on the Orient Express to Istanbul to face charges of
trying to overthrow the secular government of Turkey.
Learn more how you can be a part of taking down the Gulen Stench in the USA.
Lets send the Gulen Movement packing back on the Orient Express to Istanbul to face charges of
trying to overthrow the secular government of Turkey.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Gulen Charter schools compared-The AFT, Education, Common Core, Privatization and GreenDot/Concept Gule...
Gulen section starts at 17:00
During the June 2013 conference of Netroots in San Jose, the AFT set up a booth on privatization, high stakes testing and reform in the schools. The AFT is supporting the Common Core but says that it is not being rolled out properly. The issue of re-segregationa of the schools is also discussed along with the the privatization of education through testing by Pearson Inc., K-12 corporation and other companies. The union is seeking to make a "cleavage" of the school reform movement. The issue of organizing in the charter schools is also discussed and what challenges the union faces including union busting by
the largest national charter chain run by Concept Schools which is connected with the Fethullah Gulen movement in Turkey. Gulen is connected to the police including repression of journalists and runs some of the largest newspaper in Turkey along with supporting privatization and theocratic policies in Turkey's schools.
The AFT also differentiated the for profit GreenDot chain of schools with the Gulen schools arguing that they were very different particularly because they allowed unionization of the schools and allowed the teachers to have discussion with the management about curriculum. An AFT representative agreed to provide an audio interview on issues in education.
For more video go to:
http://blip.tv/file/3519531
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-18RVb...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoO_Ym...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAeRbh...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162...
For more information
Http://chartershcoolscandals.blogspot.co
Production of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
Friday, June 14, 2013
Gulen Concept school in Milwaulke Turk Teacher caught napping- America wins school now CLOSED!!!!
Turk teacher was caught on camera/phone napping during class. This Concept school operated by Gulenists in Milwaulke is now CLOSED. America is winning, the Gulenists are getting denied and it is average Americans that are fighting them and winning in: Loudoun County (VA) Lancaster County (PA) Knoxville (TN) Mokapu (HI) and many more that are denied.
There is only one way to go from here for the Gulenists and that is downward.
A south-side Milwaukee voucher high school that was on the rocks this year has now shuttered its doors, and a student cellphone photo paints an uninspiring view of what appears to have transpired in at least one class this year:
That's Nehnet Camalan, the former business manager for the now defunct voucher school Wisconsin College Prep Academy. Camalan was substitute teaching a math class; the photo was passed along to the Journal Sentinel by a former staff member.
Wisconsin College Prep announced in a letter on June 11 that it was closing its doors due to low enrollment and ongoing budgetary concerns.
Ali Yilmaz, the former executive director for the school, said in an interview Thursday that Camalan was terminated on May 30, but not because he was sleeping instead of teaching. He was let go because the school couldn't afford to pay his salary and benefits.
"According to him, he put his head down for one second and the student took a picture," Yilmaz explained.
It's been a tough road for the charter-turned-voucher school, which was located at 4801 S. 2nd St. near Mitchell International Airport.
Wisconsin College Prep was formerly known as the Wisconsin Career Academy. It was a sixth- through 12th-grade charter school under Milwaukee Public Schools, before the Milwaukee School Board terminated that contract.
The school then decided to apply to become a private high school and accept public funding through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. That was a financially questionable move considering that high school students are more expensive to educate than younger pupils, and that voucher payments amount to fewer public dollars per-pupil than charter school funding.
The school had about 165 students enrolled this year, Yilmaz said. He said about 32 seniors graduated and have been accepted to four-year colleges. He said there were "probably one or two" who did not have sufficient credits to graduate.
Yilmaz said enrollment has been difficult because of the school's far south-side location.
Former teachers say it was because of academic and other internal concerns, such as the fact that the school dropped Spanish this year and offered only Turkish as a foreign language. Yilmaz explained that the Spanish teacher quit and that the school couldn't find another teacher. He said Spanish was offered online instead.
The school had launched an aggressive marketing campaign last summer to try to attract students, and even offered to pay for transportation for pupils to get to the school.
But the numbers did not materialize.
In a confidential internal letter forwarded to the Journal Sentinel by a former staff member, Yilmaz told employees in May that the school could not sign contracts for the next year until enrollment numbers reached a certain number.
The letter advised that the matter was confidential, and that sharing information or "your assumptions about the school's future" with students, parents or other interested parties could result in immediate dismissal from work.
Yilmaz said Thursday that although the school was now closed, teachers would continue to be paid through the end of their contracts, which end in August.
Last year, the Journal Sentinel had questioned whether the school was linked to a reclusive Islamic cleric or otherwise had ties to Turkish schools nationwide that were highlighted in a 60 Minutes investigation.
Yilmaz denied the school was linked to that cleric, but he said Thursday that some of the school's materials were headed to Concept Schools, which are also headed by Turkish Americans and have faced similar scrutiny.
Concept Schools also rebuffs claims that they are "Turkish schools" or "Gulen Charter Schools."
There is only one way to go from here for the Gulenists and that is downward.
A south-side Milwaukee voucher high school that was on the rocks this year has now shuttered its doors, and a student cellphone photo paints an uninspiring view of what appears to have transpired in at least one class this year:
That's Nehnet Camalan, the former business manager for the now defunct voucher school Wisconsin College Prep Academy. Camalan was substitute teaching a math class; the photo was passed along to the Journal Sentinel by a former staff member.
Wisconsin College Prep announced in a letter on June 11 that it was closing its doors due to low enrollment and ongoing budgetary concerns.
Ali Yilmaz, the former executive director for the school, said in an interview Thursday that Camalan was terminated on May 30, but not because he was sleeping instead of teaching. He was let go because the school couldn't afford to pay his salary and benefits.
"According to him, he put his head down for one second and the student took a picture," Yilmaz explained.
It's been a tough road for the charter-turned-voucher school, which was located at 4801 S. 2nd St. near Mitchell International Airport.
Wisconsin College Prep was formerly known as the Wisconsin Career Academy. It was a sixth- through 12th-grade charter school under Milwaukee Public Schools, before the Milwaukee School Board terminated that contract.
The school then decided to apply to become a private high school and accept public funding through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. That was a financially questionable move considering that high school students are more expensive to educate than younger pupils, and that voucher payments amount to fewer public dollars per-pupil than charter school funding.
The school had about 165 students enrolled this year, Yilmaz said. He said about 32 seniors graduated and have been accepted to four-year colleges. He said there were "probably one or two" who did not have sufficient credits to graduate.
Yilmaz said enrollment has been difficult because of the school's far south-side location.
Former teachers say it was because of academic and other internal concerns, such as the fact that the school dropped Spanish this year and offered only Turkish as a foreign language. Yilmaz explained that the Spanish teacher quit and that the school couldn't find another teacher. He said Spanish was offered online instead.
The school had launched an aggressive marketing campaign last summer to try to attract students, and even offered to pay for transportation for pupils to get to the school.
But the numbers did not materialize.
In a confidential internal letter forwarded to the Journal Sentinel by a former staff member, Yilmaz told employees in May that the school could not sign contracts for the next year until enrollment numbers reached a certain number.
The letter advised that the matter was confidential, and that sharing information or "your assumptions about the school's future" with students, parents or other interested parties could result in immediate dismissal from work.
Yilmaz said Thursday that although the school was now closed, teachers would continue to be paid through the end of their contracts, which end in August.
Last year, the Journal Sentinel had questioned whether the school was linked to a reclusive Islamic cleric or otherwise had ties to Turkish schools nationwide that were highlighted in a 60 Minutes investigation.
Yilmaz denied the school was linked to that cleric, but he said Thursday that some of the school's materials were headed to Concept Schools, which are also headed by Turkish Americans and have faced similar scrutiny.
Concept Schools also rebuffs claims that they are "Turkish schools" or "Gulen Charter Schools."
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