Gulen Movement manipulates Colleges, to open an Islamic College in Chicago, IL

Gulen wants to control how, what and who teaches American students from pre school (Bluebonnets in TX) to American Universities.  University of Houston is manipulated by Gulen and his donations $$



Chicago News Cooperative

Return of Islamic College Raises New Questions

By DAVID LEPESKA

Published: May 28, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/us/29cncislamu.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=education

The American Islamic College, closed since 2004 when the state revoked its operating authority, is expected early next month to win approval to reopen.

Supporters see the opening of the Chicago college, founded in 1981 in the Lakeview neighborhood, as an important step for Islamic instruction in the United States. But its detractors point to the college’s ties to a secretive and far-reaching international movement that has been accused of Islamism in some countries and of an overuse of non-immigrant work visas to hire foreign teachers in its schools in the United States.

The movement, led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish religious leader living in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania, supports scores of charter schools that have gained a reputation for academic achievement and a commitment to spreading Turkish language and culture.

Yet the Gulen schools have caused widespread concern about possible manipulation of immigration laws and misallocation of taxpayer dollars. Mr. Gulen, an extremely wealthy and well-connected Turkish spiritual and political leader, fled Turkey amid charges of plotting to overthrow the secular government. He was acquitted of all charges in 2006.

The college would become the second Islamic educational institution in the country to offer college-level credit. For Muslims in the area, it would be a rejoinder to those who depict followers of Islam as prone to extremism.

“It looks like a resurrection of the college, which is great,” said Zaher Sahloul, head of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. “It’s very important to have an institution of higher learning run by the Muslim community.”

Top officials at American Islamic College have been linked to Mr. Gulen’s movement. In a cable obtained by Wikileaks, the United States’ former ambassador to Turkey characterized the Gulen movement as a potentially destabilizing influence in Turkey that more secular Turks see as an effort to bring about an Islamic state.

The Gulen movement, called Hizmet (a Turkish word meaning “service”), promotes public service and education and oversees research institutes, universities, media outlets and one of Turkey’s largest banks. The movement seeks to spread Gulen’s influence internationally through an informal network of 1,000 schools in 130 countries.

  

Hizmet operates more than 120 publicly financed charter schools in 25 states, in addition to a handful of private schools, like the Science Academy of Chicago, run by Niagara Educational Services, a Mount Prospect firm associated with the Gulen movement. Like many of the movement’s American schools, the Science Academy focuses on math and science.

Administrators of the schools often deny any official connection to the movement, which has no formal organization or official membership but operates through a network of followers, according to Hakan Yavuz, a political science professor at the University of Utah and co-editor of a 2003 book on the organization.

“It’s safe to assume that A.I.C. will be influenced by the Gulen movement,” mainly through the selection of the college’s instructors and administrative staff, Mr. Yavuz said.

“It makes sense for them to hire people from the Gulen community,” he said, “as they have much more knowledge and experience in the American education system.”

According to recent news reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Departments of Labor and Education are investigating accusations that as many as 100 of the movement’s American schools have used taxpayer money to pay for the immigration of teachers’ families from Turkey and provide other financial support for the Gulen movement.

Federal officials declined to comment.

Ali Yurtsever, head of the executive committee setting up the American Islamic College, denied any connection with Gulen. The school will have to generate its own income, unlike Gulen schools in the United States that are supported by the movement, he said.

Mr. Yurtsever has long been a follower of Mr. Gulen and serves as administrator of Niagara Educational Services. He previously was president of the Gulen-backed Rumi Forum, a Washington research institute whose honorary president is Mr. Gulen.

Attempts to contact Mr. Gulen through his Web site and through Mr. Yurtsever were unsuccessful.

School officials say the college will present what Mr. Gulen has long stood for: a more moderate form of Islam than the extremist version that has often dominated public debate in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.

The school plans to offer more than a dozen courses in the fall and hopes to attract up to 400 local and international students in the next few years.

The college was established 30 years ago by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a Saudi Arabia-based association of more than 50 predominantly Muslim countries. In 2004, the Illinois Board of Higher Education revoked its operating authority, citing a failure to comply with state regulations.

Now, after spending $500,000 from the Islamic Conference to renovate its library, dorms, mosque, and 1,000-seat auditorium, the college is reopening under new management. It is led by Mr. Yurtsever, a mathematician with a Ph.D. from Ege University in Turkey who taught at Georgetown University.

  

College officials expect to receive authority to offer for-credit courses from the Illinois Board of Higher Education on June 7. The college has applied for full accreditation, which would allow it to confer four-year degrees.

Mr. Gulen, 70, has lived in the United States since 1999, when he left Turkey. In a widely circulated video from that time, he advised his followers to “move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centers.”

In the United States, Gulen schools often import Turkish teachers using H-1B visas, which allow American employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty jobs.

The federal government places a strict limit on the number of H1-B visas it issues, and corporations often complain the cap restrains their ability to transfer highly qualified workers from foreign countries. Yet Gulen-backed schools received 839 H-1B visas in 2010, a 65 percent increase from 2007, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Teachers unions and education reform groups in several states have spoken out against the spike in foreign-born teachers at Gulen schools. “There is no reason to bring teachers in from other countries under the guise of lack of staffing,” said Jenni White, president of Restore Oklahoma Public Education.

Mr. Yavuz, the political scientist, said he did not see the movement as a danger, “but I don’t see it as productive. “

“I think their main goal is to improve the image of Islam in the U.S.,” he said, “but even there, I don’t know if they can be successful.”

==========================

John Benjamin’s comment posted on 5.26.11 --  FBI Investigation of Gulen Schools (a.k.a., Harmony Science Academies in Texas:

• In order to understand Fetullah Gulen (FG) movement (FGM), one needs to understand the history of modern Turkey. Ottoman Empire was the flag ship of Islam for centuries. After the fall of empire at the end of WW1, Modern Turkey emerged from the ruins of Ottomans as a muslim but a secular country owing this revolution to M.K.Ataturk, a military general and a statesman. The transition from an Islamic ruler/leader figure to a secular image had some reactions within Turkey and abroad. Radical Islamists have been trying to make Turkey the leader of Islam again after the death of Ataturk in 1938. Turkish Military has been the protector of Secularism for years.

Fetullah Gulen, A Turkish Imam, figured out ]that he needed] to destroy the secularism and bring down the modern Turkey targeting the leaders of the future… Kids! FGM has been providing secret study houses for mostly boarding school kids, picked the talented ones to train them in the selected universities. FGM has taken its time to proceed and reach today’s scale of operations. Secularism in Turkey is about to be demolished by the existing Islamist government whose members are mainly the secret members of the Gulen movement. We will all see a transition of Turkey, a Nato Ally, from being a secular country to another Islamic republic in the middle east very soon.

Why the US government is reaching out and providing opportunities to Gulen movement is because the US government is failing to deal with radical islam. The US goverment is under the impression that the FGM is the answer for moderate Islam since FG pretents to promote dialog among the faiths.

This is a fatal mistake. Because in Islam, there is no Dialog, there is no moderation. Kur’an states and Muslims believe that every human being needs to convert to Islam sooner or later, otherwise, they all deserve to die. This is not a joke, nor a foolish statement. This is what all kids who receives Kur’an training before they reach the age of 12 believe.

As Gulen Schools slowly but surely moves forward in their operations in the US, the main idea is to bring up more gradeuates of FGM who may in the future become the leaders of te US. Fetullah Gulen’s next school, The Harmony School of Political Science in Austin TX, being built is just a clue to prove my point.

This movement needs to be stoped. The US parents need to be warned, educated and made aware of the danger awaiting their children.

Harmony Science Academy a Gulen Charter School gets approval for $90 million in Bond Financing

http://courtbook.tarrantcounty.com/sirepub/cache/2/0fztws55xemaao55i3k4ca55/9479480530201108302531.PDF

TEXAS MAY PROVIDE BACKING FOR CHARTER SCHOOL DEBT OFFERINGS

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-03/texas-may-provide-backing-for-charter-school-debt-offerings.html
Updates with Texas school enrollment in ninth paragraph.)

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Texas may become the second U.S. state to back charter-school bond offerings under a Senate bill from a Republican leader that is opposed by local school boards.

Bonds from charter districts with investment-grade ratings would be backed by the Permanent School Fund, a AAA rated state endowment that guarantees debt issued by local systems, under the proposal from Senator Florence Shapiro. The Plano Republican heads the Senate’s Education Committee.

Charter schools, which enroll 2 percent of public-school students in Texas, could issue up to 2 percent of the guaranteed debt, under terms of the bill. The ratio would fluctuate with enrollment levels. The endowment had a 2010 return of 13 percent, rising to a value of $25 billion, according to the Texas Education Agency. The fund’s backing may cut bond yields by as much as 4 percentage points for an issuing district.

Opponents who run Texas public-school districts “aren’t happy” about her proposal, Shapiro said. “It’s a relatively small amount of money and once they understand the issue, they may come around,” she said in a March 1 interview.

Texas lawmakers are considering proposals to cut public- school funding by about 10 percent over the next two years while enrollment is projected to rise by about 80,000 annually. The spending reductions, aimed at helping to close a budget gap of as much as $27 billion, may eliminate as many as 100,000 school district jobs, Moak Casey & Associates, an Austin-based education-consulting firm, said in a January report.

Charter Financing

Unlike traditional school districts, charter schools educating about 1.6 million U.S. children don’t have taxing authority to finance school construction, according to a February study by the Local Initiative Support Corp., a New York-based nonprofit focused on community development. Between 1999 and 2009, about $2.4 billion in rated tax-exempt debt was issued to finance charter schools with support from alternative education groups, the organization said in June.

Charter schools are typically open to the public and operate independently of local governments and their union contracts. The schools set their own goals, manage their own budgets and hire and fire teachers using their own criteria.

Backing from the top-rated Texas endowment typically would enable a charter-school district to pay about 1.50 percentage points less on new debt issues in a stable market, said Elise Balboni, a project director at the Local Initiatives group. That savings could rise to as much as 4 percentage points when markets are more volatile, she said.

Funding Concerns

The Texas School Boards Association is concerned that charter schools’ use of the bond guarantees may crowd out school districts that need the endowment’s backing, said Jackie Lain, the Austin-based group’s head lobbyist. Texas had about 4.82 million public-school students last year, state figures show.

“With 80,000 new students coming into our schools annually, we want to make sure that independent school districts have access to these much-needed funds,” Lain said.

Shapiro’s bill requires charter schools to have investment- grade ratings and lets Texas’s education commissioner reject offerings that would lower ratings for bonds issued by adjacent school districts.

“There’s plenty of accountability in the bill,” she said.

If Shapiro’s proposal passes into law, Texas would become the second state after Colorado to provide guarantees to charter-school debt offerings.

Colorado Support

More than 30 charter schools in Colorado have sold bonds totaling $426 million since 2003 through a “moral obligation” program that requires the state to cover debt service when necessary, said Jo Ann Soker, executive director of the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority in Denver. In all, more than 60 charter schools in Colorado have sold bonds totaling $860 million, she said.

About 8.8 percent of Colorado’s kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment is in charter schools, according to the Local Initiative group. Nationwide, the ratio is about 3 percent.

In Texas, about 120,000 students attend 520 open-enrollment charter schools, said Josie Duckett, a spokeswoman for the Texas Charter Schools Association in Austin. About 60,000 children are on waiting lists, she said.

The largest, Houston-based Harmony Public Schools, has 33 campuses and 16,000 students statewide, according to President Soner Tarim. The organization was started by Cosmos Foundation Inc., a nonprofit group in Texas, according to its website. Cosmos has issued more than $150 million in debt to finance the schools since 2007. He said with endowment backing, the foundation could have saved about $42 million on one $90 million issue in October.

“Other states may be looking at Texas as a model for providing capital for charter schools,” said Maria Sazon, senior director for facilities initiatives at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “Having Permanent School Fund backing would save schools a ton of money that could be used to reinvest in education.”

--Editors: Ted Bunker, Mark Schoifet, Jerry Hart.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Austin, Texas, at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.ne

BAD School- Dove Science Academy A Gulen Charter School. Oklahoma Fights Back!

Four Oklahoma charter schools employ about 15 percent of their teachers from overseas using temporary nonimmigrant work visas, according to documents provided by the superintendent of the schools.

If Oklahoma teachers are being laid off, why are we as Oklahoma taxpayers paying people from not even inside our country to come and teach our children?”

Jenni White

Restore Oklahoma Public Education president

A similar chain of 33 charter schools in Texas reports that less than 20 percent of its teachers are from foreign countries using the work visas.

The independent school chains are privately run, but funded with state tax dollars.

The schools have come under scrutiny by conservative and tax watch groups throughout the nation, including Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE), which can be defined as both.

“If Oklahoma teachers are being laid off, why are we as Oklahoma taxpayers paying people from not even inside our country to come and teach our children?” asks Jenni White, president of ROPE.

But the superintendents at both organizations are defending their use of foreign workers to fill positions for which there is a documented shortage in the United States.

“People who criticize us, they don't really know anything about our schools,” said Superintendent Soner Tarim with the Harmony Schools in Texas run by the Cosmos Foundation.

“As opposed to them (the critics), isolated groups, we have 16,000 students and so many parents, thousands of parents. We had 21,000 students on our waiting list last year in Texas.”

Kaan Camuz, superintendent of the four Sky Foundation schools in Oklahoma, said they always look for qualified American teachers before they start searching for international teachers.

“Finding a willing teacher for rigorous math and science classes is difficult,” Camuz said. “My teachers work a lot more hours than any other math and science teachers. They have to come in on Saturday and Sunday. To find such a willing teacher is really, really hard.”

The teachers come to America on temporary, nonimmigrant visas known as H-1B visas.

The visas are good for three years but an employer can apply for a three-year extension.

Of the 149 teachers employed at the four Oklahoma schools, 22 are here on H-1B visas.

Two of the schools are in Oklahoma City: Dove Science Academy, grades six to 12, and Dove Science Academy Elementary, grades kindergarten to fifth.

The other two schools are in Tulsa: Dove Science Academy, grades six to 12, and Discovery School of Tulsa, grades kindergarten to eighth.

The 33 Harmony Schools operated by the Cosmos Foundation in Texas employ about 1,550 and of those about 292 are using H-1B visas, Tarim said.

Teacher shortage

The shortage of math and science teachers across the nation has been well documented by researchers.

President Barack Obama mentioned the shortage in his State of the Union address this year, and Oklahoma offers a financial incentive to lure math and science teachers to the state as part of the “teacher shortage employment incentive program.”

Since 2006, 134 teachers have received more than $1.7 million in cash incentives for teaching math and science in Oklahoma public schools, according to information from the State Regents for Higher Education.

White, a former science teacher, questions whether there truly is a shortage of teachers. She says Oklahoma's certification process that allows professionals to get teaching certificates without returning to school has closed the need.

“Even if there were a shortage, with alternative certification you open up the ability to garner local Oklahoma teachers of math and science,” White said.

Temporary solution

Camuz said hiring foreign math and science teachers is a temporary solution.

Dove Science Academy offers graduates who major in math or science education a $500 per month scholarship to the university of their choice.

“I'll be really happy one day when all our math and science teachers are our alumni,” Camuz said.

Tarim said the Cosmos Foundation funds a similar program called “Grow Your Own Teachers” that will pay the four-year college tuition of any graduate who agrees to return to a Cosmos School after graduation and teach for two years.

The Oklahoma and Texas charter schools have a cooperation agreement for things like website design, student data systems and teacher training, however, the schools are run independently by separate nonprofits.

These schools are part of a growing movement in America, more than 120 charter schools that were founded by young intellectual Turkish nationals.

The charter schools are privately run but publicly funded institutions with an emphasis on math and science and a tendency to use H-1B visas to bring in foreign teachers.

Officials with the schools say the movement is organic and based on a love for education and educators in Turkey that carries over when people emigrate to the United States.

The officials say the schools are not connected or associated with a broader movement.

Social scientists who have studied the movement, say the schools are part of a broader international movement that has millions of followers and is based on the teachings of peace and interfaith respect preached by Fethullah Gulen, an elderly Islamic Turkish scholar.

Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-charter-schools-hire-math-science-teachers-from-overseas/article/3570670#ixzz1NsgSYpiW

Gulen Charter School Gulen's Phoney Awards

http://www.nationalturk.com/en/fethullah-gulen-movement-modern-or-sinister-islam-12111

Turkey’s Fethullah Gulen movement, for some others a sect or a cult, promoting service to the common good, may have grown into the world’s biggest Muslim networking community. Is it the modern face of Islam, or are there more sinister motives?

From Kenya to Kazakhstan, from USA to Sudan and Nepal, a new Islamic network is attracting millions of followers and apparently billions of dollars. Inspired by a Turkish imam, Fethullah Gülen, who resides in the USA, the Gulen movement is linked to more than 1,000 schools in more than 130 countries as well as think tanks, newspapers, TV and radio stations, universities – and even a bank.

The massive network is really unique. It has no formal structure, no visible, no tracable accounts or organisation and no official membership. Its followers state they simply work together, inspired by the message of charismatic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who tries to convince to promote a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work and education.

Turkish businessmen are attracted by what they see and hear as his international outlook and pragmatic approach to issues like using a finance credit.

In Turkey currently the movement is thought to have up to 10 million supporters. A recent study shows many are dedicated in giving between 5%-20% of their monthly income to many sub-groups affiliated with the movement.

Critics are centered that the movements aim is nothing but to gain power, to spread socially conservative Islamic attitudes on issues like marriage and alcohol around the world, and to suppress any opposition, just like any other radical islamist organisation.

Fethullah Güven A threat to Turkey’s Secularity?

In the past year, three of its most prominent critics have been sentenced to prison in Turkey, revealing claims that it has become a sinister controlling might in Turkey.

Mr Fethullah Gulen’s critics hint to a video from 1999, in which he preaches his followers that they should purposely attempt to infiltrate mainstream structures:

“You must move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centres. You must wait until such time as you have got all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institution in Turkey.”

The following year, Fethullah Gulen faced charges of trying to sabotage Turkey’s secular state.

He left then for the United States, claiming the recording had been tampered with. He was later cleared in absentia of all charges.

Today Fethullah Gulen is 70 years old and lives a secluded life on a country estate in Pennsylvania, USA.

Fethullah Gulen has urged his followers to build schools instead of mosques, and encourages interaction with people of other faiths through dialogue societies, including one in the UK and many in the United States.

Fethullah Gulen Hoca Fendi Living in Amerika- NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/us/29cncislamu.html?_r=1

May 28, 2011

Return of Islamic College Raises New Questions

By DAVID LEPESKA

The American Islamic College, closed since 2004 when the state revoked its operating authority, is expected early next month to win approval to reopen.

Supporters see the opening of the Chicago college, founded in 1981 in the Lakeview neighborhood, as an important step for Islamic instruction in the United States. But its detractors point to the college’s ties to a secretive and far-reaching international movement that has been accused of Islamism in some countries and of an overuse of non-immigrant work visas to hire foreign teachers in its schools in the United States.

The movement, led by Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish religious leader living in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania, supports scores of charter schools that have gained a reputation for academic achievement and a commitment to spreading Turkish language and culture.

Yet the Gulen schools have caused widespread concern about possible manipulation of immigration laws and misallocation of taxpayer dollars. Mr. Gulen, an extremely wealthy and well-connected Turkish spiritual and political leader, fled Turkey amid charges of plotting to overthrow the secular government. He was acquitted of all charges in 2006.

The college would become the second Islamic educational institution in the country to offer college-level credit. For Muslims in the area, it would be a rejoinder to those who depict followers of Islam as prone to extremism.

“It looks like a resurrection of the college, which is great,” said Zaher Sahloul, head of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. “It’s very important to have an institution of higher learning run by the Muslim community.”

Top officials at American Islamic College have been linked to Mr. Gulen’s movement. In a cable obtained by Wikileaks, the United States’ former ambassador to Turkey characterized the Gulen movement as a potentially destabilizing influence in Turkey that more secular Turks see as an effort to bring about an Islamic state.

The Gulen movement, called Hizmet (a Turkish word meaning “service”), promotes public service and education and oversees research institutes, universities, media outlets and one of Turkey’s largest banks. The movement seeks to spread Gulen’s influence internationally through an informal network of 1,000 schools in 130 countries.

Hizmet operates more than 120 publicly financed charter schools in 25 states, in addition to a handful of private schools, like the Science Academy of Chicago, run by Niagara Educational Services, a Mount Prospect firm associated with the Gulen movement. Like many of the movement’s American schools, the Science Academy focuses on math and science.

Administrators of the schools often deny any official connection to the movement, which has no formal organization or official membership but operates through a network of followers, according to Hakan Yavuz, a political science professor at the University of Utah and co-editor of a 2003 book on the organization.

“It’s safe to assume that A.I.C. will be influenced by the Gulen movement,” mainly through the selection of the college’s instructors and administrative staff, Mr. Yavuz said.

“It makes sense for them to hire people from the Gulen community,” he said, “as they have much more knowledge and experience in the American education system.”

According to recent news reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Departments of Labor and Education are investigating accusations that as many as 100 of the movement’s American schools have used taxpayer money to pay for the immigration of teachers’ families from Turkey and provide other financial support for the Gulen movement.

Federal officials declined to comment.

Ali Yurtsever, head of the executive committee setting up the American Islamic College, denied any connection with Gulen. The school will have to generate its own income, unlike Gulen schools in the United States that are supported by the movement, he said.

Mr. Yurtsever has long been a follower of Mr. Gulen and serves as administrator of Niagara Educational Services. He previously was president of the Gulen-backed Rumi Forum, a Washington research institute whose honorary president is Mr. Gulen.

Attempts to contact Mr. Gulen through his Web site and through Mr. Yurtsever were unsuccessful.

School officials say the college will present what Mr. Gulen has long stood for: a more moderate form of Islam than the extremist version that has often dominated public debate in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. The school plans to offer more than a dozen courses in the fall and hopes to attract up to 400 local and international students in the next few years.

The college was established 30 years ago by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a Saudi Arabia-based association of more than 50 predominantly Muslim countries. In 2004, the Illinois Board of Higher Education revoked its operating authority, citing a failure to comply with state regulations.

Now, after spending $500,000 from the Islamic Conference to renovate its library, dorms, mosque, and 1,000-seat auditorium, the college is reopening under new management. It is led by Mr. Yurtsever, a mathematician with a Ph.D. from Ege University in Turkey who taught at Georgetown University.

College officials expect to receive authority to offer for-credit courses from the Illinois Board of Higher Education on June 7. The college has applied for full accreditation, which would allow it to confer four-year degrees.

Mr. Gulen, 70, has lived in the United States since 1999, when he left Turkey. In a widely circulated video from that time, he advised his followers to “move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centers.”

In the United States, Gulen schools often import Turkish teachers using H-1B visas, which allow American employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty jobs.

The federal government places a strict limit on the number of H1-B visas it issues, and corporations often complain the cap restrains their ability to transfer highly qualified workers from foreign countries. Yet Gulen-backed schools received 839 H-1B visas in 2010, a 65 percent increase from 2007, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Teachers unions and education reform groups in several states have spoken out against the spike in foreign-born teachers at Gulen schools. “There is no reason to bring teachers in from other countries under the guise of lack of staffing,” said Jenni White, president of Restore Oklahoma Public Education.

Mr. Yavuz, the political scientist, said he did not see the movement as a danger, “but I don’t see it as productive. “

“I think their main goal is to improve the image of Islam in the U.S.,” he said, “but even there, I don’t know if they can be successful.”

Gulen Charter Schools in Oklahoma come under scrutiny for h1-b Visa abuse (Surprise Surprise)

Charter schools go global to fill math, science positions
By MEGAN ROLLAND NewsOK.com
Published: 5/23/2011  2:24 AM
Four Oklahoma charter schools employ about 15 percent of their teachers from overseas using temporary nonimmigrant work visas, according to documents provided by the superintendent of the schools.
A similar chain of 33 charter schools in Texas reports that less than 20 percent of its teachers are from foreign countries using the work visas.
The independent school chains are privately run, but funded with state tax dollars.
The schools have come under scrutiny by conservative and tax watch groups throughout the nation, including Restore Oklahoma Public Education, which can be defined as both.
Click here to read the complete article at NewsOK.com.
Read more from this Tulsa World article at
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20110523_19_A8_FourOk936343&allcom=1#addyourcomment

Gulen Politicians - aka "Useful tools of Gulen": Gulen Tools- Rep. Eric Proctor and Senator Rick Br...

Gulen Politicians - aka "Useful tools of Gulen": Gulen Tools- Rep. Eric Proctor and Senator Rick Br...: "The Gulen Movement uses each of their teachers, interfaith organizers, and other front groups as the new lobbying for Turkey. Gulenists pa..."