Charter school bill (SB 2) should be reviewed. The Cosmos Foundation run by a Turkish man named Fethullah Gulen is running 38 charter schools in Texas which sell themselves as Math and Science centers but in fact teach turkish ways and culture and are numbing Americans to the islamic threat we face inside our country.
A Public Hearing in the Education Committee on SB 2 (Senator Dan Patrick) concerning Charter Schools is pending and will probably be held Today. It would create an appointed “Authorizing Authority” taking that responsibility from the elected State Board of Education. The committee members are:
| Chair: | Sen. Dan Patrick 512) 463-0107 |
| Vice Chair: | Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. (512) 463-0127 |
| Members: | Sen. Donna Campbell 512) 463-0125 |
| Sen. Robert Duncan (512) 463-0128 | |
| Sen. Kel Seliger (512) 463-0131 | |
| Sen. Larry Taylor (512) 463-0111 | |
| Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (512) 463-0126 | |
| Sen. Royce West (512) 463-0123 |
Ask Education Committee members to add amendments to the bill to:
#1 require charter school owners to be American citizens.
#2 require charter school checkbooks to be online for taxpayer review. This would reveal how much money goes to Turkish educators and elsewhere.
Photo By New YorK Times Click Photo to linked article.
Because we are taking on the public schools parents are looking for other avenues to educate their children. Many who can’t afford private schools (even though private schools use CommonCore and CSCOPE) run to charter schools. Who by the way target the lower income hispanic and black community.
By promoting Charter School legislation some elected officials see a way to get votes and stay in their positions of power. Which gives them the opportunity to move to higher office. In addition it opens the door to raise huge campaign donations from charter school lobbies such as the Cosmos Foundation/Harmony/Gulen Science Centers who are giving free all expense paid trips to legislators in Texas and across the country and whose consultant was former executive director of the Republican Party and trusted advisor to President George W. Bush, Karen Hughes Hughes.
Just to be clear, I am not against all Charter Schools. Although I firmly believe we must hold elected officials accountable for the legislation they put forward which may pose a National Security threat to our nation.
If you are reading this an asking what are the Harmony Charter Schools? Below is a great video by Frank Gaffney founder of the (Center for Security Policy) as he works within his own community to stop the Gulen movment in Loudoun Virginia. Harmony is the name for the Gulen/Cosmos Foundation schools in Texas. In other states they go by different names. “
List of Gulen Charter Schools in the United States“
An example of what results is Texas Senate Bill 2 currently working its way through the Texas Legislature. Some of the heroes on exposing CSCOPE are now pushing a bill that completely opens the door for the Gulen Charter Schools to come into Texas in mass numbers.
Below is a breakdown of Senate Bill 2.
Senate bill 2 is a comprehensive overhaul of the laws that govern charter schools. Changes are made on the authorizing, governing, and establishing of charter schools in Texas.
Looking at the bill, there were a lot of areas of concern, given the recent experience on CScope in Texas.
- The current laws cap the number of charter schools in Texas at 215. The cap is entirely removed.
- A new governing board of 7 appointees will be the only oversight of these schools. The State Board of Education will have no authority to grant or revoke charter school privileges in this state. This puts us back in the position of non-elected officials in charge of the education.
- If there are any vacant or underutilized facilities in a school district, the ISD “shall” lease that taxpayer funded facility to any approved charter school that wants it. Note the word in the bill is shall (a mandate) rather than the word “may” (which is a choice).
- First time charter schools will be granted a license to operate for a term of 5 years. It will automatically renew at that point for 20 years. Most of the Harmony/ Gulen charter schools (currently under question) will fall in the 20 year category.
- The TEA will be required to post all vacant or underutilized facilities for all to see. For organized charter efforts underway, it will be easy to snap up these facilities all over the state.
- No new charter will have to pay rent or purchase the facility. They pay $1.
- The license of a charter school can be revoked by the newly formed commission only under the following circumstance:
a. The school performs badly in 3 out of 5 years
b. The school is not fiscally satisfactory on multiple reviews
Questions to ask…..
1. Why are non- elected officials being put in charge without public accountability?
2. Why a 20 year renewal?
3. Shouldn’t we worry about enormous expansion of schools of any type without input?
4. What if the curriculum is found to be offensive?
5. Why is our state funding for-profit enterprises?