Let the Games Begin...
On July 15, 2014, some former Concept Schools’ employees testified before the Ohio State School Board, stating that they had witnessed shady state test handling activities, student and teacher harassment inflicted by the Turkish employees, differing disciplinary and attendance policies enforced on the Turkish students versus the American ones, student sexual improprieties that were witnessed but not addressed by school administrators, and the lack of qualifications and teaching modalities involving the H1-B visa teachers.
It sounds like old news, doesn’t it? But what might be different this time – is that both the Board and the Ohio State Auditor’s office have promised that they will actually investigate the allegations.
So where have the Ohio Department of Education, the Auditor’s office and the State Board of Education been for the past six years? I notified all of them in the summer of 2008 about what was going on in these schools. Likewise, I contacted the State Attorney General’s office. The AG’s office told me that it was a matter for the ODE, and the ODE told me that I should contact the sponsoring school districts (which I did and both district’s never responded to my telephone or written requests for investigations), and the Governor’s office (whom at the time was under Stickland’s rule), never bothered to respond either.
Further, I personally contacted and spoke with my state representative, Matt Lundy (three times) who promised that he would investigate – and to my knowledge never did.
So now that the feds are finally honing in on the Gulenist tricksters, all of a sudden there seems to be an “awakening" among the state politicians who in the past have been quick to take the Gulenist’s handouts of trips to Turkey, puffed-up platitude plaques of recognition, and campaign contributions. It seems like the state politicians might soon be running for cover, especially when some long anticipated ethics violations come to light (my prediction of course).
Akron Beacon reporter, Doug Livingston has been investigating the latest developments surrounding Concept Schools, and in his column published on July 17, 2014, he again noted that federal records show the Gulenists’ schools “Are aggressive in importing teachers from Turkey, with one board member explaining that they are of higher quality than American teachers. They seek visas for more teachers from Turkey than all public schools combined seek from abroad.”
No matter how many times I hear the part about “the Turkish teachers being of higher quality than the American teachers,” it still makes me laugh out loud. Higher quality –sure – they barely speak English let alone have the ability to actually write anything literate in English; their teaching qualifications consist of a 10-day (if any) classroom observation wherein they (the qualified Turkish “teachers) watch qualified and licensed American teachers – teach. About 99% of the H1-B teachers and administrators can only qualify for a “substitute teaching license,” while their American counterparts are required to hold regular teaching licenses that only “highly qualified” teachers are granted.
And let’s again address Livingston’s findings that most of the Concept Schools’ Board Members are not United States’ citizens, which is a requirement of public school boards (as it well should be). Personally, I like to be able to comprehend what my kid’s school board members are actually talking about – without the use of a translator -- when they are freely spending my tax dollars…
The bottom line is that these “educational imports” are nothing more than pawns for Gulen’s organization shipped over here to siphon as many United States’ tax dollars as they can gather to funnel back to Gulen’s cult. I get that the Gulenists are brain-washed simpletons, but what about the American tax payers who have through their continued denial and indifference allowed these snake-oil charlatans to pillage both our educational system and pocketbooks for the past 13 years?
Below is the link to Doug Livingston’s Akron Beacon Journal article in its entirety:
Auditor joins investigation of 19 Ohio charter schools
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/auditor-joins-investigation-of-19-ohio-charter-schools-1.505473
It sounds like old news, doesn’t it? But what might be different this time – is that both the Board and the Ohio State Auditor’s office have promised that they will actually investigate the allegations.
So where have the Ohio Department of Education, the Auditor’s office and the State Board of Education been for the past six years? I notified all of them in the summer of 2008 about what was going on in these schools. Likewise, I contacted the State Attorney General’s office. The AG’s office told me that it was a matter for the ODE, and the ODE told me that I should contact the sponsoring school districts (which I did and both district’s never responded to my telephone or written requests for investigations), and the Governor’s office (whom at the time was under Stickland’s rule), never bothered to respond either.
Further, I personally contacted and spoke with my state representative, Matt Lundy (three times) who promised that he would investigate – and to my knowledge never did.
So now that the feds are finally honing in on the Gulenist tricksters, all of a sudden there seems to be an “awakening" among the state politicians who in the past have been quick to take the Gulenist’s handouts of trips to Turkey, puffed-up platitude plaques of recognition, and campaign contributions. It seems like the state politicians might soon be running for cover, especially when some long anticipated ethics violations come to light (my prediction of course).
Akron Beacon reporter, Doug Livingston has been investigating the latest developments surrounding Concept Schools, and in his column published on July 17, 2014, he again noted that federal records show the Gulenists’ schools “Are aggressive in importing teachers from Turkey, with one board member explaining that they are of higher quality than American teachers. They seek visas for more teachers from Turkey than all public schools combined seek from abroad.”
No matter how many times I hear the part about “the Turkish teachers being of higher quality than the American teachers,” it still makes me laugh out loud. Higher quality –sure – they barely speak English let alone have the ability to actually write anything literate in English; their teaching qualifications consist of a 10-day (if any) classroom observation wherein they (the qualified Turkish “teachers) watch qualified and licensed American teachers – teach. About 99% of the H1-B teachers and administrators can only qualify for a “substitute teaching license,” while their American counterparts are required to hold regular teaching licenses that only “highly qualified” teachers are granted.
And let’s again address Livingston’s findings that most of the Concept Schools’ Board Members are not United States’ citizens, which is a requirement of public school boards (as it well should be). Personally, I like to be able to comprehend what my kid’s school board members are actually talking about – without the use of a translator -- when they are freely spending my tax dollars…
The bottom line is that these “educational imports” are nothing more than pawns for Gulen’s organization shipped over here to siphon as many United States’ tax dollars as they can gather to funnel back to Gulen’s cult. I get that the Gulenists are brain-washed simpletons, but what about the American tax payers who have through their continued denial and indifference allowed these snake-oil charlatans to pillage both our educational system and pocketbooks for the past 13 years?
Below is the link to Doug Livingston’s Akron Beacon Journal article in its entirety:
Auditor joins investigation of 19 Ohio charter schools
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/auditor-joins-investigation-of-19-ohio-charter-schools-1.505473