[You must go to Peyton Wolcott’s power-packed website today if you are concerned about the possible indoctrination of our students through the Gulen Movement/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Charter Schools. – Donna Garner]
While we may "hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," not all charter schools are created equal. www.PeytonWolcott.com
Texas: Land of Charters -- and Economic Opportunity
(SB 597 & HB 1437)
By Peyton Wolcott
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
In 1995, state senator Bill Ratliff rewrote the Texas Education Code -- big-time. Other than paving the way for a lucrative career as a lobbyist for both himself and his son Thomas (Microsoft, etc.), this accomplished several things (more below) including the establishment of charter schools in Texas [e.g., Gulen/Cosmos Foundation/Harmony Schools].
But Bill forgot to include proof of US citizenship for appointed charter school board members.
Like old-time sleeper cells, charter operators have mostly been content to keep a low profile, renting empty storefronts and doing their best, some like KIPP telling us enthusiastically and often about their achievements, others like Houston pastor Harold Wilcox or San Antonio superintendent Roi Garcia, failing miserably (links to news stories below).
But now the charter operators have gone all glitzy on us and want a piece of the Texas plum pie, a guarantee by the Permanent School Fund (the PSF is the endowment that allocates monies for free textbooks to Texas public school students) for their school construction bonds, just like at public school districts.
The largest of the Texas charter operators, Cosmos Foundation, Inc., has even hired no less than Karen Hughes of PR heavyweights Burson-Marsteller to -- uh, what's the word I'm looking for -- help Cosmos pass the school construction bond bills.
Other than the fact that Karen has declined to state how much cash she's receiving for her, uh, help with the bond bills, what's the problem with charter schools wanting bond bills passed?
Sen. Florence Shapiro's SB 597 & Rep. Rob Eissler's sleeper companion, HB 1437
Until this year, so long as charter schools were content to lease those empty storefronts, whether or not Texas charter operators were citizens of the United States of America was relatively moot.
But now with their wanting access to the PSF the issue of US citizenship becomes very important indeed.
The local ISDs who also have access to the PSF as a guarantee for their construction bonds are governed by elected trustees, all of whom must be US citizens. When they run for office we get to vet them for ourselves.
Not so with our charter operators. When folks get off the plane from another country and apply to the State of Texas to start up a charter school, TEA does not ask whether or not they are US citizens because, remember, Bill Ratliff did not include US citizenship requirements in his 1995 SB1.
And because charter school operations are run by boards who are appointed, not elected, they do not go through the same vetting process as do elected officials.
At least two Cosmos Foundation, Inc. officials have non-Cosmos businesses that are not in good standing (as of this morning) with the Texas Comptroller. They are superintendent Soner Tarim and board VP Ellen A. MacDonald. There may be more or these two may be the only ones; they are the only two I've researched so far.
Also, Soner, the superintendent, still has no SBEC certification after a decade at the helm. These two officials are running a charter operation involving many schoolchildren and many millions of dollars.
See chart here: www.peytonwolcott.com/TX_CosmosFoundation_BoardMembers_TurkishEducationEmploymt.html
All charter schools are not created equal. At the very least requiring all of our charter operators to be US citizens, to have annual GAAP audits and to put their check registers online will go a long way towards leveling the playing field.
As I learn more I will share it with you as soon as is feasible. Our schoolchildren deserve for the grownups in their lives to be better informed on this than we have been.
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What Bill Ratliff's SB1 in 1995 -- the major rewrite of the Texas Education Code -- did:
Link to San Antonio Express-News article re Roi Garcia/San Antonio Prep Academy & TEA audit findings: www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/TEA-alleges-illegalities-at-district-1320246.php
Link to Houston Chronicle article re Pastor Harold Wilcox's $3 million problems at his charter school: www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/2658525.html
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