Advocating for the Gülenist movement and speaking at their events have paid handsome dividends for G

This space explores issues in public education policy, and it advocates for a commitment lodging lake tahoe to and a re-examination of the democratic purposes of schools. If there is some urgency in the message, it is due to the current reform efforts that are based on a radical re-invention of education, now spearheaded by a psychometric blitzkrieg of "metastasizing testing" aimed at dismantling a public education system that took almost 200 years to build.
"This increasingly well-rooted network provides lodging lake tahoe the Gulen Movement with daily access to the minds of over 45,000 students, and yearly access to hundreds of millions of hard-earned tax dollars." Sharon Higgins
Charter schools are privately managed entities with negligible oversight, but funded lodging lake tahoe with public money. lodging lake tahoe The somewhat secretive Gülenist Islamic sect, named after charismatic Turkish Imam Fethullah Gülen, runs more charter schools than any other charter school chain in the United States. While there's lodging lake tahoe nothing wrong with privately financed religious schools, it's problematic lodging lake tahoe at best that public funds are being used to fund religious lodging lake tahoe charter chains.
The cultish Gülenist Movement currently operates eight such privately managed charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Several more are slated to open after having won approval under the woefully misnamed lodging lake tahoe "Public School Choice" (PSC) resolution, lodging lake tahoe brewed by former lodging lake tahoe LAUSD District 5 Trustee, Yolie Flores, who was also an employee of the Gates Foundation while concurrently "serving" the school district. Flores' lodging lake tahoe PSC gives brand new school lodging lake tahoe facilities built with public money away to charter school corporations lodging lake tahoe like the Gülenist Magnolia Science Academy .
The individual most responsible for the proliferation of Gülen Charter Schools in LAUSD is the Board President herself, Mónica García. García's ties to the Gülenists are long-standing, and she is a tenacious advocate lodging lake tahoe on their behalf. She is speaking at the Gülenist Pacifica Institute in September 2012 regarding her prominent role in corporate education reform and the unprecedented privatization of LAUSD under her neoliberal reign. The Pacifica Institute ran into controversy last year, when Armenian groups protested the organization's ties to Turkish groups denying the 1915-1918 Armenian genocide. That García chooses to be so insensitive to the considerable Armenian population in her school district is most likely attributable to the fact that there are no Armenian organizations managing large chains of lucrative charter schools in LAUSD.
Advocating for the Gülenist movement and speaking at their events have paid handsome dividends for García. lodging lake tahoe In addition to helping proliferate more privately managed charters schools, the Gülenists have been very generous donors to García's political coffers. García, who raised more than $100,000 in just two months for her 2013 reelection bid, counts several Gülenist operatives among her contributors. Suleyman Bahceci, CEO of Magnolia Charter Corporation, donated $250, as did Varol Gurler, Magnolia's CAO. The Pacifica Institute's Director, Ferdi Mesut Ates, chipped in $100. Pacifica's Ilker Yildiz lodging lake tahoe contributed likewise. Undoubtedly, García will continue to rake in cash from the Gülenist machine, as she has from most of the lucrative corporate charter chains. In an ethical education environment, donations from corporate lodging lake tahoe charters to district board members that have the power to grant them their charters and give them choice facilities would be considered a conflict of interest.
Corporate charter school magnate Yvone Chan also recently donated to García's efforts to capture a third term as a LAUSD Trustee. Milken Educator Award winner Chan, despite a vested interest in the charter school industry, is on the California State Board of Education (SBOE). Like García, Chan has a long and rewarding history with the Gülen Charter Movement. In fact, she made sure that she and her other SBOE members granted Magnolia its Statewide Benefit Charter because:
The Gülen Movement lodging lake tahoe and their ubiquitous Gülen charter schools loom so large on the American education landscape that CBS' 60 Minuntes devoted a full length segment entitled: U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam to this phenomenon of school privatization.
What's important lodging lake tahoe here isn't which kind of religious group runs these schools, but that public lodging lake tahoe funds are being used to support schools having overarching political and religious agendas like the Gülenist do. This is no different than the right-wing Milton Friedman inspired capitalism indoctrination American Indian Public Charter Schools and Green Dot Public Schools push on their hapless pupils. The former actually requires their charter school students to make daily pledges to our abject political economy. Nor is it any different than the charter school chain that teaches its students that Emmett Till's brutal lodging lake tahoe murder was a just desert for what they termed his "sexual harassment." The selfsame Celerity Charter Chain pushes a "post-racial curriculum" lodging lake tahoe that ignores institutional racism in favor of students self-colonizing by "dress[ing] for success..." rather than "focus[ing] on how the history of the country lodging lake tahoe has been checkered." Because there's lodging lake tahoe little to no oversight or regulation for the privately managed charter school sector, these and many more such incidents will continue unabated.
There's another major problem with García's lodging lake tahoe expansion lodging lake tahoe of Gülen charter schools in LAUSD. Part of the Gülenist modus operandi is to staff their schools with teachers lacking credentials (part and parcel the standard in the charter school industry), many of whom have never taught before at all. Gülen schools bring in Turkish businessmen and professionals on 1HB visas to teach, yet there is currently a glut of highly qualified, credentialed, unemployed teachers in LAUSD. Gülen supporters claim a lack of educators versed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), but the reality is that there's neither lodging lake tahoe a shortage of STEM workers nor teachers in the United States. lodging lake tahoe Instead, Gülen movement watchdogs have demonstrated a pattern of abuse in regards to H1B visas.
Ultimately, the failings of Gülen Charter Schools are the same as with all charter schools. They are privately managed. lodging lake tahoe They have unelected boards. They have a glaring lack of transparency both in terms of finances and operations. They contribute to the deprofessionalization of teaching. They undermine public schools lodging lake tahoe and the bare semblance of democracy which those pubic commons represent. lodging lake tahoe They are, to all intents and purposes, private organizations with access to a publicly financed revenue stream. Johathan Kozol's prescient prediction that our public school system was on the corporate auction block is being borne out by the expansion of Charter Management Organizations. Gülen Charter Schools are a symptom of a much deeper systemic problem known as neoliberalism.
School board trustees are elected to represent their community's interests in regards to public schools. That Mónica García is so beholden to the competing interests of the lucrative charter school sector raises serious concerns of opportunism, greed, and favoritism. Her championing of the Gülenist lodging lake tahoe charter movement is further proof that she has little to no consideration of her constituents and our community's schoolchildren.
Special thanks lodging lake tahoe to Sharon Higgins of The Perimeter Primate , Charter School Scandals , and The Broad Report for her copious existing research on this topic and encouraging lodging lake tahoe me to write this specific piece. lodging lake tahoe See this video for an idea of the breadth of her knowledge: Charters, Privatization Of Education The Gulen Schools In The US: Sharon lodging lake tahoe Higgins Speaks Out