Turkish Gulen charter schools and the Washington charter law
August 26, 2016
Turkish President Erdogan is blaming his political rival Fethullah Gulen for the recent attempted coup and wants Gulen extradited to Turkey. Gulen, a Turkish cleric, living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania denies the accusation and claims that Turkey’s coup was staged by President Erdogan himself. At this point, the truth is not forthcoming, but the violent events shine the spotlight on this Turkish cleric.
And what does this have to do with education in Washington State?
Adherents of Fethullah Gulen‘s Hizmet movement run a network of charter schools larger than any other charter school chain in the United States. (More on Gulen here) The schools have innocuous names such as the Magnolia Science Academy or Pioneer Charter School of Science and thus are not recognized as Turkish Gulen schools, yet many of the teachers are recruited from Turkey and supplant US teachers, even though they are not fluent in English and students sometimes have trouble understanding them.
Our Washington State Charter School law, passed through Initiative 1240 in 2012, does not disallow foreign entities from running charter schools here.
Here is some background.
When the charter school initiative was being promoted in 2012, our organization, CURE, opposed this initiative because it sets up a system of school governance that removes accountability to the voters and taxpayers. The charter schools would still be required to follow the state standards ( i.e. the Common Core), administer the Smarter Balanced Assessments, and comply with the data collection. It turns out charter schools would also have to follow the same bathroom laws as the regular public schools. There isn’t much “choice” in many of the areas that concern public school parents. At the same time, the initiative violated several provisions in the Washington State Constitution. (This has been discussed in other commentaries on this website. We will discuss Gulen schools here.)
Last September, the Washington State Supreme court ruled that the charter school law was unconstitutional because while charter schools take public money, the boards which run them and the Commission which authorizes them are not elected or accountable to the voters/taxpayers. The Court did not address the other flaws in the charter school law.
The recent charter school bill, E2SSB 6194 attempted to address the Court’s ruling during the 2016 Legislative Session. However, the re-write simply directed the funds to come from a different pocket of public money (the Lottery), and the new bill did not repair the law’s many other problems.
Unaccountable foreign charter schools
One of the problems is the ability for unaccountable foreign parties such as Gulen adherents to enter our country and school our children. A section in the law allows charter school applicants to use their track record from other nations to prove the success of their program. This wording and the lack of any prohibition on foreign entities opening charter schools here, opens the door to foreign charter schools. That is where Imam Fethullah Gulen and his chain of charter schools comes into the picture. There is no prohibition against their setting up shop here. This would be problematic even if the group came from any other country. Unaccountable foreign entities should not establish schools and teach our children using public funding.
The charter school law will be back in court, and the State Supreme Court may again rule the law unconstitutional. Perhaps then the Legislature can concentrate on school reforms which are truly Constitutional.
Turkish President Erdogan is blaming his political rival Fethullah Gulen for the recent attempted coup and wants Gulen extradited to Turkey. Gulen, a Turkish cleric, living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania denies the accusation and claims that Turkey’s coup was staged by President Erdogan himself. At this point, the truth is not forthcoming, but the violent events shine the spotlight on this Turkish cleric.
And what does this have to do with education in Washington State?
Adherents of Fethullah Gulen‘s Hizmet movement run a network of charter schools larger than any other charter school chain in the United States. (More on Gulen here) The schools have innocuous names such as the Magnolia Science Academy or Pioneer Charter School of Science and thus are not recognized as Turkish Gulen schools, yet many of the teachers are recruited from Turkey and supplant US teachers, even though they are not fluent in English and students sometimes have trouble understanding them.
Our Washington State Charter School law, passed through Initiative 1240 in 2012, does not disallow foreign entities from running charter schools here.
Here is some background.
When the charter school initiative was being promoted in 2012, our organization, CURE, opposed this initiative because it sets up a system of school governance that removes accountability to the voters and taxpayers. The charter schools would still be required to follow the state standards ( i.e. the Common Core), administer the Smarter Balanced Assessments, and comply with the data collection. It turns out charter schools would also have to follow the same bathroom laws as the regular public schools. There isn’t much “choice” in many of the areas that concern public school parents. At the same time, the initiative violated several provisions in the Washington State Constitution. (This has been discussed in other commentaries on this website. We will discuss Gulen schools here.)
Last September, the Washington State Supreme court ruled that the charter school law was unconstitutional because while charter schools take public money, the boards which run them and the Commission which authorizes them are not elected or accountable to the voters/taxpayers. The Court did not address the other flaws in the charter school law.
The recent charter school bill, E2SSB 6194 attempted to address the Court’s ruling during the 2016 Legislative Session. However, the re-write simply directed the funds to come from a different pocket of public money (the Lottery), and the new bill did not repair the law’s many other problems.
Unaccountable foreign charter schools
One of the problems is the ability for unaccountable foreign parties such as Gulen adherents to enter our country and school our children. A section in the law allows charter school applicants to use their track record from other nations to prove the success of their program. This wording and the lack of any prohibition on foreign entities opening charter schools here, opens the door to foreign charter schools. That is where Imam Fethullah Gulen and his chain of charter schools comes into the picture. There is no prohibition against their setting up shop here. This would be problematic even if the group came from any other country. Unaccountable foreign entities should not establish schools and teach our children using public funding.
The charter school law will be back in court, and the State Supreme Court may again rule the law unconstitutional. Perhaps then the Legislature can concentrate on school reforms which are truly Constitutional.