Concept Schools, Gulen Charter Schools Midwest operations
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Showing posts with label Gulen Illinois. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gulen Illinois. Show all posts
Sunday, May 25, 2014
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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Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Gulen Chicago corruption exposed by Chicago Sun Times, declined approval for schools at local level Gulenists go to state for favors
House Speaker and state Democratic Party chair Michael Madigan (left) shakes hands with Mustafa Demir, the mayor of Fatih district in Turkey. Mustafa Demir was picked up on corruption charges in Turkey (one of 50 in the latest Gulen drama) on December 17, 2013
EXCELLENT article how
the Concept Schools (Midwest operation of the Gulen Movement) was rejected by
the CPS (Chicago Public Schools) for 2 new charter schools in the Chicago area
under the Horizon Science name. The Gulen political bribing machine, then went
to State Democratic leader and house speaker Madigan who had previously been a
guest of Hizmet on the famous FREE trips to Turkey. MADIGAN overturned this
REJECTION at the state level--and the Gulen Movement got the approval for 2 new
schools in the Chicago area. One of these schools in going to be at a former
factory site and there is serious concern over a toxic waste report. Madigan is
an ASS.
When you read how
Madigan and his staff got 4 trips to Turkey, not to mention how his son and
other family members benefit from the Gulen “Concept Schools” we really get a grasp of just how corrupt
Illinois politics really is.
By writer researcher Dan Mihalopoulos:
Updated: December 23, 2013 5:15PM
When Concept Schools Inc. wanted to open two charter schools in Chicago last year, it sought permission from Chicago Public Schools officials.
The answer was no.
CPS officials have allowed the rapid expansion of charters. But they turned down Concept. They said the charter operator, headquartered in Des Plaines, didn’t merit being allowed to expand based on test scores at its one city school, the Chicago Math and Science Academy in Rogers Park.
Concept Schools appealed to a higher authority: the little-known Illinois State Charter School Commission. The state agency was created in 2011 by lawmakers including House Speaker Michael Madigan, the South Side Democrat who’s a powerful advocate of Concept and the faith-based Gulen movement to which the schools are connected.
This time, the answer was yes.
As the first, and so far only, charter operator to benefit from the decisions of the 2-year-old state agency, Concept is getting 33 percent more funding per pupil for those two new schools than the city school system gives other charters.
Madigan, who’s also the Illinois Democratic Party chairman, visited Concept’s Chicago Math and Science Academy last year. In a video the school posted on YouTube, Madigan praised the school, founded and run by Turkish immigrants.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/24480273-452/cps-s
CHARTER OFFICIAL
MADE $100,000
ON DEAL
MADE $100,000
ON DEAL
Like most charter schools, Concept Schools’ Chicago Math and Science Academy relies on local taxpayers for more than 92 percent of its $6 million-a-year budget.
CMSA sold its building in Rogers Park two years ago to a related not-for-profit company called New Plan Learning, which went to Wall Street to borrow $33.1 million through a bond issue to buy the North Side campus, add a gym and expand three other Concept schools in Ohio.
CMSA is on the hook to pay about $40 million in rent to New Plan Learning over 30 years to pay its share of the debt. Their only other option, school officials said, was to default on loans they took out in 2009 to buy the school’s current building in Rogers Park.
The school’s current board president, Edip Pektas, was treasurer at the time and recused himself from the bond-deal votes. School records show New Plan Learning paid $100,000 to Pektas as a financial adviser.
Pektas’ role with New Plan Learning was identified in bond documents. But those statements — given to potential bond buyers — did not disclose his CMSA board position.
ays-no-to-charter-schools-but-michael-madigan-says-yes.
Researcher and writer Dan Mihalopoulos connects the dots of Concept School officals with the various Gulen Movement front groups in the USA
The three Concept schools in Chicago are among more than 150 U.S. schools tied to the worldwide Gulen movement, according to Joshua D. Hendrick, a sociology professor at Loyola University Maryland and author of a recent book on the movement.
“They’re absolutely related,” Hendrick said of the charter schools and the other Turkish groups in Chicago.
Among the ties:
◆ The board president for Concept’s Chicago Math and Science Academy, Edip Pektas, is secretary of the Turkic American Federation of Midwest, an umbrella group for the Niagara Foundation and the Turkish chamber. “The Turkish American community is a smaller community in the region, and whenever there’s an activity, my name comes up,” Pektas said to questions about ties between the school and other groups.
◆ CMSA’s former treasurer Hasan Ali Yurtsever was president of the Gulen-affiliated Rumi Forum in Washington, D.C. In a 2007 interview at Georgetown University, Yurtsever said Gulen was a close family friend.
◆ Another former CMSA board member, Murat Surucu, was on the board of a Gulen-inspired group in California before moving to Chicago.
◆ Yavuz Burak Canbolat was the Turkish chamber’s treasurer at the same time he was CMSA president, from 2009 to 2011.
◆ Concept vice president Salim Ucan was principal of the Science Academy of Chicago, now located in Mount Prospect. That private school was started by Niagara Educational Services, which created the Niagara Foundation.
Niagara Foundation officials say they broke with Niagara Educational Services in 2009. But records show the Niagara Foundation’s president and another current board member were on the Niagara Educational Services board while it was owed loan payments by Concept’s real estate arm and while it leased a building to a Concept school in Ohio.
Despite the connections with Gulenists, Ucan said, “Concept Schools is not affiliated with, nor does it promote, any political or religious agendas.”
GULEN POLITICIAN OF THE YEAR AWARD WILL GO TO MADIGAN,
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