Asleep at the Wheel
A 2003 OIG audit of Sonoran Science Academy in Arizona found the school recruits an unusually high percentage of teachers from Turkey and that $20,519 of the $158,500 the school had received in grant money from the CSP had been used for fees paid to a teacher exchange organization to facilitate hiring teachers from foreign countries — an unallowable use of grant funds. The school is alleged to be part of a global network of Turkish-run schools connected to Fethullah Gulën, an exiled Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania. The school denies this connection. The Academy disputed the OIG’s findings and refused to refund the misspent grant money. It’s not clear whether the department took further action to recover misspent money, but since the OIG report, numerous other charter schools with connections to the Gulën network have received CSP grants, including those in the Sonoran, Magnolia, Harmony, and Horizon networks. In 2011, the CSP grant stream for CMOs provided a nearly $5,000,000 grant to the Cosmos Foundation to replicate Harmony charter schools. That year The New York Times exposed the connections between Cosmos, the Gulën movement and the Turkish vendors who received contracts from the charter school system. The article noted that there was an ongoing investigation regarding half a million dollars of federal grant funds. Nevertheless, Gulën-affiliated schools still welcomed millions of CSP dollars through the SEA program. The Fulton Science Academy in Georgia, that received nearly a quarter-million dollar SEA grant, had its charter renewal denied in 2012 afer a forensic audit revealed the charter spent nearly $75,000 helping new employees and their families immigrate. Apparently being cited by the 2003 OIG audit had not ended this illegal use of federal funds. The audit also identified numerous related-party transactions.
How American Should American Schools Be?
Peter Greene
Part of the impetus behind modern education reform is the idea that more of the education system should be operated by businesses. Many merits and drawbacks of that approach continue to be debated, but one aspect is rarely discussed. Modern business is multinational, so we need to ask–how much control of our educational system do we want to send outside of U.S. borders?
Charter schools have been one path by which foreign nationals can become involved in the U.S. education system. The most notable example is the schools of the so-called Gulen charter chain. The Sunni imam Fethullah Gülen (who is almost always awarded the adjective “reclusive”) moved to the U.S. in 1999 for medical treatment. Within a decade, he had created a wide-ranging group of charter schools. The chain has been used to issue H-1B visas to large numbers of Turkish nationals to come to teach; numerous reports claim that they are also expected to kick back part of their salary. The schools are also accused of funneling money to groups such as Gulen-linked construction companies. While some conservative critics worry about Gulen schools as indoctrination centers, many others are concerned that the Gulen schools are using U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund a government in exile. At the very least, Gulen schools put U.S. students in the middle of a foreign power struggle; the Erdogan government has actively worked to undermine the chain, and the 2016 Turkish coup attempt was blamed on Gulen.
That’s just one charter chain, but it’s one of the largest chains in the country, with as many as 150 schools (not all schools are eager to advertise their Gulen connection, so counts vary). But in most states, charter schools are run as businesses, allowing for investors and operators from across the globe.
The explosion of education technology has opened other pathways for foreign influence in U.S. public education and raised some important questions. In April, writing for EdSurge, Jenny Abamu asked the question “What Happens To Student Data Privacy When Chinese Firms Acquire U.S. EdTech Companies,” and the question is not rhetorical. This year the Chinese company Netdragon acquired Edmodo, an education learning platform, for a hefty $137.5 million. Speculation is that the acquisition has far less to do with Edmodo’s revenues (which have been described as “struggling”) and more to do with the 90 million users and the data they have generated. If data is the new oil, then many ed tech companies are sitting on rapidly filling tanks that will attract attention from businesses all around the globe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/01/09/how-american-should-american-schools-be/#6a8f45867144
(09 January 2019)
How To Profit From Your Nonprofit Charter School
Peter Greene
Depending on your state, some of this is legal and some of it might not be. If we get into the grey areas, then we start seeing some really crazy stuff, like the Gulen charters. One of the largest chains in the US, the Gulen charters are connected to Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish religious opposition leader. The schools have been dogged by controversy,including allegations that their mostly-Turkish immigrant faculty are required to kick a portion of their salaries back to the movement. The Gulen schools are potentially using US taxpayer money to finance a government-in-exile. These schools are mostly nonprofit charters.
Charter schools, whether nominally for-profit or nonprofit, face the same basic problem– they are businesses that do not control how much they charge for the service they provide. This means that every dollar spent on students is one dollar less to go into the bank account of the business; the interests of the students and the interests of the businesses involved in the school are in opposition to each other.
Nor can you assume that the laws protect taxpayer dollars in any meaningful way. In some states, the laws against self-dealing are strong and well-enforced. In other states, not so much. Eagle Arts Academy is a disaster by any measure, and local school authorities know it– but state law does not give them, or anyone else, the clear authority to shut it down.
There are charter schools out there that are neither directly nor indirectly attempting to profit from the taxpayers via the students they are supposed to serve. But if you are shopping for a charter school for your child, knowing that it’s nonprofit is not enough. Ask if there is a for-profit business operating the school, and if there is, think twice. If that for-profit business is operated by the same people that run the school, don’t think twice– just walk away.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2018/08/13/how-to-profit-from-your-non-profit-charter-school/#17f4aba33547
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