Gulen School Shrouded in Secrecy

[chanel]

Truebright Science Academy Charter School in North Philadelphia is one of more than 130 charter schools nationwide run by followers of the Turkish imam M. Fetullah Gulen, and federal officials have put it under a microscope.

Not only are the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education looking into allegations of kickbacks by Turkish teachers at the charters nationwide, according to knowledgeable sources, but at least nine American teachers and administrators at Truebright have filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. All allege that they were being paid less than noncertified Turkish staffers.

The school, which enrolls 307 students from seventh grade through high school, gets $3.4 million of its $3.9 million budget this year from the district. Funds from the state and federal government cover the rest. Ninety percent of its students are African American.

The charter school office report does not mention Gulen or note that a third of Truebright's teachers and administrators are from Turkey. Most are working in this country with non-immigrant visas.

Some parents say their children cannot understand their Turkish teachers because their English language skills are deficient. And staffers say the school's operations are shrouded in secrecy, and they risk losing their jobs if they ask too many questions. After The Inquirer reported about federal investigations last year, staffers reported that school officials had shredded documents.

Twenty-five charter schools are up for renewal, and Truebright is one of three the district's charter office says should close.

Allegations raised over N. Phila. charter school run by followers of Turkish imam

Will they close it? My hunch is "no".

 

[waltky]

Gulen's charter schools come under scrutiny...

US schools linked to Gulen bending under pressure
Tue, Sep 27, 2016 - A network of more than 150 US charter schools linked to followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric the Turkish government blames for instigating July’s failed coup, has come under growing financial and legal strain, according to school officials, current and former members of Gulen’s movement and public records reviewed by reporters.

The publicly financed schools, a key source of jobs and business opportunities for US members of Gulen’s global movement, have sharply slowed their expansion in recent years, public records showed. The slowdown comes amid a series of government probes in more than a dozen states into allegations ranging from misuse of taxpayer funds to visa fraud. The investigations launched by state and federal officials have not resulted in criminal charges or directly implicated Gulen, whose name is not on any of the charter schools. The increased pressure on the schools also comes as the Turkish government is cracking down on Gulen supporters at home and presses hard for Gulen’s extradition. Just six new schools were opened between last year and this year to date, down from a peak of 23 new schools in 2010, according to a review of the public records of 153 charter schools and their management companies around the US.

The decline runs counter to the steady growth over the past six years of all US charter schools, which receive taxpayer funds, but are exempt from some rules that govern traditional state-run public schools. At the same time, 15 schools have been closed or transferred to owners with no connection to Gulen’s movement since 2010. In at least 11 of those cases — including in Georgia, California, Pennsylvania and Ohio — the management firms or individual schools themselves had faced official investigations, reporters found. “Since these investigations and pressures from media coverage have been going on, the schools are much more, maybe five times more careful, in terms of their finances, how they hire contractors,” said Hakan Berberoglu, acting executive director of the Illinois-based Niagara Foundation, which aims to promote the interfaith dialogue espoused by Gulen, its honorary president. “They are much more careful in how they expand,” he told reporters.

Berberoglu said that the schools are not officially affiliated with Gulen and are not centrally controlled by anyone. In another sign of a slowdown, the number of visa applications the schools submitted for guest workers from Turkey and other countries declined from more than 1,000 in 2010 to 360 last year, immigration records showed. The trend reflects a desire by the schools linked to Gulen followers to avoid further government scrutiny, according to current and former members of the movement.

In the wake of the failed coup, Ankara’s attorneys in the US have stepped up an aggressive campaign to try to persuade local, state and federal authorities to open new inquiries and discredit the charter schools and other US operations linked to Gulen. Asked about signs that the movement is under stress in the US, Alp Aslandogan, Gulen’s spokesman, said: “We are not worried about that.” Many Gulen supporters in Turkey are now looking to their US-based brethren for material support and safe haven, according to current and former members of the movement. “It’s been my job to save people, to help people who want to come over here,” said one US-based Turkish businessman, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his efforts to assist would-be immigrants.

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