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You are here: Home / Politics / Education / Charter Religious Schools

Charter Religious Schools

by $8 blue check mistermix|  June 7, 20117:18 am| 24 Comments

This post is in: Education, General Stupidity

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Today’s Times has a long investigation of charter schools sponsored by the Gulen movement, a charismatic, moderate form of Islam that originated in Turkey. The story details lax oversight of public money, questionable awarding of contracts to favored Turkish contractors, and importing cheap labor on H1-B visas.

It’s too early to tell if these schools are doing better than public schools, but why shouldn’t they? Unlike a regular public school, they can import cheap, motivated labor on a special visa arrangement. And, like every other church school, they can cherry pick a pool of motivated children of engaged parents from the local Gulen mosque, rounding out enrollment with a few non-Gulen kids from the local community. The only difference is that we’re financing this church school with our tax dollars. It’s a noble experiment in paying for something that would otherwise have happened for free.

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24Comments

  1. 1.

    kdaug

    June 7, 2011 at 7:33 am

    It throws off the curve, and gives an example to point to and say “See! Charter schools work! And we just happen to have some Christian schools in need of federal funding! (Oh, and – psst – ixnay on the Islam thing. Don’t want the proles riled).”

  2. 2.

    Keith G

    June 7, 2011 at 8:01 am

    It’s too early to tell if these schools are doing better than public schools, but why shouldn’t they?

    AFAIK, the research data clearly shows that on average charter schools do no better than regular public schools and many do worse.

    Edit: Charters are more often in demand not for what they teach children but what they keep children away from.

    In my part of world, religious charters are known for doing worse.

  3. 3.

    Kirk Spencer

    June 7, 2011 at 8:20 am

    When I get into a discussion where the idea of tax funded religious charter schools comes up I use one question as a touchstone.

    Should a charter madrassa get taxpayer funding as well?

    Sadly, “no” and “yes but” are frequent responses.

  4. 4.

    mai naem

    June 7, 2011 at 8:22 am

    Arizona is one of the leaders of the charter school movement. All I can say is I know a few people who send their kids to charter schools and I am not impressed. A lot of them are just out there to make a buck and have nothing to do with providing a decent education. However, I do have to say there are two charter school organizations here that have had really really great results but then they thats a total of 5 schools in however many charter schools are in AZ – not a great percentage. I truly don’t understand why this country has such a high dropout rate when seventy percent of the job is just showing up.

  5. 5.

    Andrew Abshier

    June 7, 2011 at 8:32 am

    The Beeb ran a story on the Gulen Movement a few nights ago which gives some good background:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13503361

    The story looks at the Movement as it stands now in Turkey, where it originated. I wasn’t aware they had set up charter schools here. In Turkey, they are paid for by supporters with no government support.

  6. 6.

    jcgrim

    June 7, 2011 at 8:58 am

    The entire charter school movement is a recipe for corruption. There’s “bubble” written all over it.

    http://www.knoxviews.com/node/16443

    h/t stickwithanose

    I’ve long argued that one of the primary drivers behind current trends in education policy is the desire of private sector actors to tap public treasuries for profit, and that assertion is often met with incredulous responses that the majority of charter schools [for example] are non-profit. While organizations like Imagine Inc. have purposely blurred the line between non- and for-profit, the real profit seeking push is in real estate.

    This LA Times story on CitiBank teaming up with Andre Agassi [of all people] offers us an object lesson on how the scheme works:

    “Operators routinely have difficulty securing learning facilities because real estate is pricey. Traditional school funding sources — public spending and philanthropy — aren’t sufficient to pay for construction on the scale Agassi and Turner hope to achieve…

    “The only way to make a dent is to attract additional for-profit capital,” Turner said. The fund is expected to raise up to $300 million, which would be leveraged through borrowing to secure as much as $750 million for school investments.

    The fund would build facilities or retrofit existing properties that would be rented to charter school operators at what Turner called an “affordable” rate with the intention of eventually selling the facilities to the operators.

    Accredited schools receive a certain amount of state funding per pupil. As new charter schools grow, they become financially more secure. By the fourth or fifth year of operation they should be stable enough to borrow tax-exempt money at a low interest rate from the municipal bond market and buy the school from the fund.

    “What our fund does is provide a bridge to ownership,” Turner said.

    Investors in the fund profit from the rent and sale. Turner declined to say what the rate of return is expected to be, adding only it would be “market rate.”

    The fund’s investors are “a very diverse group of institutional investors, university endowments, family foundations and pension funds,” Turner said. Anchoring the fund are Citibank, Intel Capital and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.”

  7. 7.

    AAA Bonds

    June 7, 2011 at 9:37 am

    I’m just about done with this religion bullshit.

  8. 8.

    WereBear

    June 7, 2011 at 9:58 am

    I went to a Southern Baptist school for seventh grade. What I learned:

    *God loves you so much he murdered His son. So imagine what he’ll do to you if you listen to that rock music!

    *People are untrustworthy pits of sin, and that’s what you will grow up to be. Just resign yourself to not doing anything. That way you will get in less trouble.

    *Smart people are going to get into the worst trouble of all, because they question God. So shut up and get good grades.

    *Murdering somebody or wearing your skirt too short; both Sins.

    *If you don’t leave Chapel crying from having the Passion of the Christ verbally re-enacted for you, Satan has already claimed you for his own.

    I will say this: that it isn’t any wonder they can’t wait for the Rapture. The way they rig it, life here IS a vale of tears.

  9. 9.

    keestadoll

    June 7, 2011 at 10:05 am

    My situation for what it’s worth:

    I took my boys out of the local PS because I saw first hand how the school budget process worked and the results: had to exit small class size, drop art and music, fire teachers. (Psst: they had the money to keep them, but couldn’t use it for those things–schools have various money “pots” and you cannot use money from pot “A” to offset a shortage from pot “B.” You get the idea). Fast forward…

    Put boys in a Catholic school in a neighboring town. Not bad, but soon found that the cost of tuition and gas getting them to and from there was taking its toll and lo’ and behold, an enterprising group of last hired/first fired from another local PS got together and said we can do it better, thus a charter school was born and is set to open its doors this fall. They had numerous “town hall” meetings with parents and their message was simple (about to liberally paraphrase here): “this is your school, we want your help and input. We want everyone to be engaged. There’s a wall between schools and parents that we want to tear down.”

    These women are motivated, outside the box thinkers who want to provide a great education, have a plan to do it, and are not shackled by entrenched and dysfunctional guidelines. To the parents at these meetings, it was like a cool glass of water after wandering in a desert.

    Time will tell how this goes, but all I know is that I don’t feel powerless over my kids’ education.

  10. 10.

    Cacti

    June 7, 2011 at 10:07 am

    @Keith G:

    AFAIK, the research data clearly shows that on average charter schools do no better than regular public schools and many do worse

    You’re probably thinking of the CREDO study from Stanford.

    Their findings in a nutshell were: 17 percent do significantly better, 46 percent show no difference, and 37 percent do significantly worse.

  11. 11.

    kay

    June 7, 2011 at 10:11 am

    @jcgrim:

    The entire charter school movement is a recipe for corruption

    I think so, too. There was a big pot of money sitting there labeled “public school funding” and it was (and will be) impossible to resist.

    All they’re going to do is take the funds going to the on the ground union workers now at public schools and funnel it to managers, owners or investors at the top.

    I listen to good-faith “school reform” proponents ( I think they exist) and I just marvel at how they don’t see the huge potential downside here, for children. We already have for-profit charters in Ohio. We set up charter schools and the vultures immediately swooped in, and the good-faith school reformers did not one thing to stop them. They’re not even acknowledging or grappling with the fact that people are being ripped-off now, today, and that there are no controls on this.

    If they were going to try this national experiment, perhaps they should have thought through the downside, which is a pack of for-profit grifters descending on second graders.

  12. 12.

    Cacti

    June 7, 2011 at 10:20 am

    @kay:

    I think so, too. There was a big pot of money sitting there labeled “public school funding” and it was (and will be) impossible to resist.

    And it’s also seen in the efforts to turn Social Security into a 401k plan, and Medicare into a voucher for private insurance. Hell, anything that has the GOP’s stamp of approval really. Any money that isn’t trickling up into the pockets of the top 1% is money wasted.

  13. 13.

    kay

    June 7, 2011 at 10:34 am

    @Cacti:

    I don’t know anything about economics, but it could it be bigger? In other words, besides the greed and the grifters, could it be that those at the top are not really creating any new avenues to making money, so these big pots of publicly-allocated money are their only wealth-creating mechanisms left?

    It has the feel of desperation, particularly the Social Security money grabs, re: Wall Street. If ordinary wages, earnings and investments (real estate) are stagnant for the 90%, the top 10% need “growth” to COME from somewhere, so they’re just going to take what I think of as “public assets” and convert them to private assets. Presto. There’s the “growth!”

  14. 14.

    Cacti

    June 7, 2011 at 10:46 am

    @kay:

    I don’t know anything about economics, but it could it be bigger? In other words, besides the greed and the grifters, could it be that those at the top are not really creating any new avenues to making money, so these big pots of publicly-allocated money are their only wealth-creating mechanisms left

    I’m no economics wonk, but I think that’s mostly what it’s about. Growth opportunity through more traditional means has plateaued, so they want to turn public services into a money making venture.

  15. 15.

    kay

    June 7, 2011 at 10:46 am

    @Cacti:

    One of the things that we’re doing here locally when attempting to repeal SB5, which is the Ohio union busting initiative, is talking about how public school money paid to teachers stays here.
    It feels like it’s “sticking”, to me, as a a good argument. It’s absolutely true, too. Teachers live here and they spend money here. The median income here is not high. You can’t really support a community (local businesses) on 9 dollar an hour workers, unless you seek a community composed of payday lenders and rent-a-center outlets.

  16. 16.

    CatHairEverywhere

    June 7, 2011 at 10:48 am

    My friend worked for one of these Gulen schools after being laid off from a public school. She was one of the few non-Turkish teachers. She ultimately quit because the labor violations were so bad- no materials, no lunch break, principal shouting at teachers (not her, thankfully) etc. etc. In a technology school, she had to bring her own overhead projector because they had no overheads, document cameras etc. The principal tried to buy their books used, but they arrived late and incomplete. Where was all the (public) money he saved by running a sub-par school? Luckily, she was able to get hired back at her public school for next year. (unless more layoffs happen)

  17. 17.

    CatHairEverywhere

    June 7, 2011 at 10:52 am

    This same friend also told me about a job opening she saw at a public charter school that touted their no union, no contract, no retirement beliefs. It promoted a very Glenn Beckian view of the world, and it seemed to be focused on a Mormon view of the world.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    June 7, 2011 at 11:20 am

    @Cacti:

    I’m no economics wonk, but I think that’s mostly what it’s about. Growth opportunity through more traditional means has plateaued, so they want to turn public services into a money making venture.

    These assholes are insatiable. There is never enough profit for them, they must always have more, they must suck the blood of everyone else to satisfy their compulsion.

  19. 19.

    WereBear

    June 7, 2011 at 11:34 am

    @kay: those at the top are not really creating any new avenues to making money, so these big pots of publicly-allocated money are their only wealth-creating mechanisms left?

    That’s it precisely.

    While Republicans whine about being the party of business, they have created a situation where real business can’t be done. Want to come up with better ice cream flavors? (Ben & Jerry) Want to come up with a better computer? (Apple, Amiga) Want to offer cheaper and faster wifi? (You name it…) Blocked and bought up and legislated away.

    What’s left? Just looting and murder.

  20. 20.

    kay

    June 7, 2011 at 11:50 am

    @WereBear:

    The charter school business makes me laugh, because I’m the starry-eyed idealist?

    These people assume for-profit elementary schools will benefit students. That’s where the money will flow. Down.

    “We’ll take it from teachers wages and it will then go directly to the second graders, Kay, you naive fool!”.

    Okey doke. That’ll happen. In some other UNIVERSE that’ll happen.

  21. 21.

    ecks why

    June 7, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    these “gulen” schools are a propaganda front for islam which is dangerous no matter how it is packaged. muslims do not assimilate into western society because islam is a theocracy and demands supremacy.

    the twin fogs of political correctness & ignorance must be dispersed before western society better understands this menace. even a brief review of islamic theology & history quickly exposes the deadly roots of this evil ideology.

    see the links in the pdf version below for more accurate info about islam
    ==========

    islam is a horrible ideology for human rights

    5 key things about islam

    1. mythical beliefs – all religions have these (faith) because its part of being a religion: having beliefs without proof until after the believer dies. the problem is people will believe almost anything.

    2. totalitarianism – islam has no seperation of church and state: sharia law governs all. there is no free will in islam: only submission to the will of allah as conveniently determined by the imams who spew vapors to feather their own nests. there are no moderate muslims: they all support sharia law.

    3. violence – islam leads the pack of all religions in violent tenets for their ideology & history: having eternal canonical imperatives for supremacy at all costs and calling for violence & intimidation as basic tools to achieve these goals.

    4. dishonesty – only islam has dishonesty as a fundamental tenet: this stems from allah speaking to mohamhead & abrogation in the koran which is used to explain how mo’s peaceful early life was superseded by his warlord role later.

    5. misogyny – present day islam is still rooted in 8th century social ethics: treating females as property of men good only for children, severely limiting their activities, dressing them in shower curtains and worse.

    conclusions ??

    there really are NO redeeming qualities for this muddled pile of propaganda.

    islam is just another fascist totalitarian ideology used by power hungry fanatics on yet another quest for worldwide domination and includes all the usual human rights abuses & suppression of freedoms.

    graphics version
    http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/5792/dangero.jpg

    1 page pdf version – do file/download 6kb viewer doesn’t show fonts well, has better fonts header footer links, great for emailing printing etc
    http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_UyNP-72AVKYWNiNTFlYTEtMTA1ZC00YjhiLTljMDUtMDhhNDE0NDMzNmYz

  22. 22.

    gnomedad

    June 7, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    @keestadoll:
    I’m fortunate enough (i.e., I live in a sufficiently well-to-do community) to have access to excellent public schools. Don’t know how I’d feel if it were otherwise. Thanks for sharing your experience.

  23. 23.

    DPirate

    June 9, 2011 at 4:47 am

    It’s a noble experiment in paying for something that would otherwise have happened for free.

    Libertarian much?

    Really, when has this happened for free? Even hedge schools paid the teacher.

  24. 24.

    DPirate

    June 9, 2011 at 4:50 am

    @mai naem: Because 70% of the job is just showing up. It’s mind-numbingly boring when it isn’t constrictive for the sake of conformity.

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