Concept Schools, Gulen Charter Schools Midwest operations
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Sunday, May 25, 2014
Horizon Science Academies part of Gulen Concept Schools are racist against African Americans
In this tweet CEO of Concept Schools Salim Ucan refers to African American Children as "AA Kids"
Here the Concept Schools boasts about the Turkish Olympiads and takes a photo of their rehearsals African American Girls in Turkish Costumes. Why are they not allowing a show case of African American culture.
Here the Concept Schools boasts about the Turkish Olympiads and takes a photo of their rehearsals African American Girls in Turkish Costumes. Why are they not allowing a show case of African American culture.
Gulen Charter Schools in Illinois effected by new law to abolish state charter school commission
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| 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.
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Gulen Schools Need Investigation
Here is an article that appeared in the Ohio papers regarding the Gulen operated Horizon Science Academys. Their report card is at the bottom of the article and they should get an F. below average
Gulen schools need investigated
By Guido H. Stempel III | Posted: Friday, April 25, 2014 5:26 pm
We expect charter schools to be different, but to say the Gulen Charter Schools are different is a considerable understatement.
There are 19 in Ohio, and they are owned by Fethullah Gulen, a moderate Islamic cleric from Turkey.
Gulen has been a political activist, but he is out of favor with the present regime in Turkey. He now resides in a rural community in eastern Pennsylvania. U.S. immigration officials tried to deport him a few years ago, but in 2008 he applied for and received a green card. So we have 19 schools in Ohio run by an immigrant who does not reside in Ohio. The schools are in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.
Most of the Gulen schools in Ohio go by the impressive sounding name Horizon Science Academy. Their web sites are impressive.
Ohio was the first state that Gulen started schools in, back in 1999, but he now has 139 schools in 26 states as well as schools in a number of other countries. His schools have been investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Education.
Most administrators and many of the teachers are Turkish, and there is some suspicion that there have been violations of U.S. immigration laws. The Turkish employees are expected to pay 40 percent of their salaries back into the Gulen organization.
Because the Ohio legislature allows charter schools to operate in secret, it is difficult to assess what the Gulen Charter schools are doing.
Is there a religious slant to the curriculum? When they apply to operate in Ohio, they say there isn’t, but what they say and what they do may not be the same, and there is little oversight of these schools by the Ohio Department of Education. Some observers feel the Gulen operation is a religious cult.
How much of Ohio taxpayers money do they get? It’s not public information, so we can only guess. I will open the guessing at $25 million, but it could be twice that.
You cannot find out who their board members are or when they meet. You also cannot find out how they spend the money. Some Gulen schools in other states are suspected of favoring Turkish vendors and not following normal bidding procedures.
There is one piece of public information — how they do on the state proficiency tests. The Department of Education reports an overall figure that includes math scores, science scores and progress toward graduation. The figures are rather conclusive. Seventeen of the 19 Gulen schools get an F. One gets an A and one gets a B.
I find it difficult to understand why the Department of Education and the Legislature are not investigating the Gulen schools. Of course, the Legislature has given charter schools special status. They are not examined as closely as public schools, and the regulations are so broad that it is difficult to prove that a charter school is doing anything wrong.
Yet here we have group of schools owned and operated by someone who is not a citizen. They get millions of tax dollars and perform poorly. There is a religious connection that is unusual, if not unique. It is time to start asking some hard questions.
* * *
Guido H. Stempel III is a distinguished professor emeritus in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.
Ohio School report cards- Horizon Science Academys get an F
Gulen schools need investigated
By Guido H. Stempel III | Posted: Friday, April 25, 2014 5:26 pm
We expect charter schools to be different, but to say the Gulen Charter Schools are different is a considerable understatement.
There are 19 in Ohio, and they are owned by Fethullah Gulen, a moderate Islamic cleric from Turkey.
Gulen has been a political activist, but he is out of favor with the present regime in Turkey. He now resides in a rural community in eastern Pennsylvania. U.S. immigration officials tried to deport him a few years ago, but in 2008 he applied for and received a green card. So we have 19 schools in Ohio run by an immigrant who does not reside in Ohio. The schools are in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.
Most of the Gulen schools in Ohio go by the impressive sounding name Horizon Science Academy. Their web sites are impressive.
Ohio was the first state that Gulen started schools in, back in 1999, but he now has 139 schools in 26 states as well as schools in a number of other countries. His schools have been investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Education.
Most administrators and many of the teachers are Turkish, and there is some suspicion that there have been violations of U.S. immigration laws. The Turkish employees are expected to pay 40 percent of their salaries back into the Gulen organization.
Because the Ohio legislature allows charter schools to operate in secret, it is difficult to assess what the Gulen Charter schools are doing.
Is there a religious slant to the curriculum? When they apply to operate in Ohio, they say there isn’t, but what they say and what they do may not be the same, and there is little oversight of these schools by the Ohio Department of Education. Some observers feel the Gulen operation is a religious cult.
How much of Ohio taxpayers money do they get? It’s not public information, so we can only guess. I will open the guessing at $25 million, but it could be twice that.
You cannot find out who their board members are or when they meet. You also cannot find out how they spend the money. Some Gulen schools in other states are suspected of favoring Turkish vendors and not following normal bidding procedures.
There is one piece of public information — how they do on the state proficiency tests. The Department of Education reports an overall figure that includes math scores, science scores and progress toward graduation. The figures are rather conclusive. Seventeen of the 19 Gulen schools get an F. One gets an A and one gets a B.
I find it difficult to understand why the Department of Education and the Legislature are not investigating the Gulen schools. Of course, the Legislature has given charter schools special status. They are not examined as closely as public schools, and the regulations are so broad that it is difficult to prove that a charter school is doing anything wrong.
Yet here we have group of schools owned and operated by someone who is not a citizen. They get millions of tax dollars and perform poorly. There is a religious connection that is unusual, if not unique. It is time to start asking some hard questions.
* * *
Guido H. Stempel III is a distinguished professor emeritus in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.
Ohio School report cards- Horizon Science Academys get an F
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Turkish Olympiad-A Gulen "show": Turkish Olympiads a danger to attendees, students ...
Turkish Olympiad-A Gulen "show": Turkish Olympiads a danger to attendees, students ...: Foreign Minister Davutoğlu is seen with government officials and foreign children during the closing ceremony of the Eighth Turkish Oly...
Sunday, February 9, 2014
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.
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