The Governor and the Gulenists
Big Education Ape: KILLING ED: 120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/01/killing-ed-120-american-charter-schools.html
The intrepid Cassie Creswell was doing a little research today, when she realized that Bruce Rauner's foundation had given some money ($10K) to this thing called The Atlantic Institute, down in Florida. It's on the Rauner Foundation's 2013 990.
That happens to be the Orlando node of the Gulen Movement; it's the south Florida version of the Niagara Foundation. Across the nation, the Gulen model is basically identical. They give random awards to influential people and work them with flattery so that their charter school business has lots of friends. It's a basic principal taught by Fethullah Gulen himself. Here are a bunch of Floridians getting their random awards. These people have no idea what's going on but they look happy.
Ok, so that's weird. The governor of Illinois, whose family foundation gives a lot of money to charter school and reform groups, is sending $10k down to Orlando to the Gulen Movement. Not to the Florida Gulen-linked charter schools, but to the Movement directly.
So, we were trying to figure that one out. And honestly, I'm stumped. It raises a lot of questions.
Now, this Florida Gulen node is also known by another name, the Nile Foundation. Remember, these groups change their names all the time; it's part of the strategic ambiguity that they embrace to avoid detection. Here's the little notice about the name change, courtesy of Sharon Higgins.
It's all one thing, with constantly changing, hard-to-track names. And it's part of the same cult-network operating in Illinois as the Niagara Foundation and the Turkish American Society.
Now, strangely, it so happens that Governor Plutocrat also happens to have at least one, possibly two, ranches in Montana, and he gives a ton of money to Montana-related things. And,TBFURMAN: The Governor and the Gulenists:
Big Education Ape: Update: Gulen Harmony charter school network accused of bias and self-dealing Dallas Morning News - http://go.shr.lc/1qV85Hm
Big Education Ape: Turkey Links Texas Charter Schools to Dissident - WSJ - http://go.shr.lc/1OW1ZfVBig Education Ape: Magnolia Science Academy - A Gulen Charter School: Gulen Magnolia Science Academy links discussed at LAUSD board meeting -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/06/magnolia-science-academy-gulen-charter.html