Hillary Clinton Declares: I Sweat the Policy Details on Education, Children's Issues - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Hillary Clinton Declares: I Sweat the Policy Details on Education, Children's Issues - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Hillary Clinton Declares: I Sweat the Policy Details on Education, Children's Issues

Philadelphia

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, in her historic acceptance speech here Thursday, pledged to provide broader access to a quality education, praised teachers in the couse of attacking her GOP rival Donald Trump, and highlighted her past work on behalf of students with disabilities. 

Her speech was light on K-12 policy specifics, in keeping with a Democratic National Convention that has largely bypassed substantive education talk in favor of more general rhetoric. And she also leaned on language often used by the teachers' unions, some of her staunchest and earliest allies. 

Clinton, the first woman to receive a major party nomination, said she would to build a country where parents can "send their kids to a good school no matter what ZIP code you live in." That's a line straight from the National Education Association's list of talking points about education. 

Excoriating Trump for his remark at the GOP convention last week in Cleveland that "I alone can fix it," Clinton mentioned a litany of professions, including "teachers who change lives" who work to address the nation's needs and problems. 

Just as other speakers from previous nights of the convention did, Clinton highlighted her work for the Children's Defense Fund, such as advocating on behalf of students with disabilities in Massachusetts, and how it led to changes in legal protections for those children.

"It's a big idea. Every kid with a disability has a right to go to school," Clinton said, adding that she sweated policy details "because it's not just a detail if it's your kid."

She promised to push for affordable child care. And touching on a theme that's been a top priority for her vice-presidential pick, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Clinton gave a nod to career and technical education, saying, "We will help more people learn a skill or practice a trade, and make a good living doing it."

Clinton also pledged to pass comprehensive immigration reform and to "keep families together," touching on a theme earlier in the DNC. 

Clinton mentioned that plan as well on Thursday, and also promised to "liberate" people from student debt

Clinton still doesn't have a comprehensive K-12 plan, and she didn't lay one out during her Thursday speech. But she has addressed specific elements of education policy, such as her plan to eventually create universal prekindergarten programs in the U.S.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

Policy details or not, Jon Fielbrandt, a high school math and science teacher and Michigan delgeate, said Thursday night he was heartened by everything Clinton has said about bullying, standing up for teachers' collective bargaining rights and early-childhood education.

"I've got faith she's going to take us in the right direction on education," said Fielbrandt, who's a member of the NEA.

But he was most excited to be here Thursday night because he has two daughters.

"That feeling of that glass ceiling being broken. That means a lot," Fielbrandt said.

Early Learning, Equity, Crumbling Schools

In an interview at the convention Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray D-Wash., said she's "just ecstatic" about the prospect of working with a possible President Hillary Clinton on expanding access to early-childhood education.

"I just say the words to her 'early-childhood education.' And she says, 'What do we need to do?' This is a passion for her," said Murray, ranking member of the Senate education committee.

California Rep. Xavier Bacerra raised that issue, too, in his speech Thursday night, highlighting Clinton's plan to provide universal preschool to Americans' 4-year-olds. And he raised Clinton's stated "Chelsea test." That's Clinton's line that if she didn't think a school was good enough for her daughter Chelsea Clinton, it wasn't good enough for any child.

"She'll rebuild our crumbling schools. She'll give our teachers the support and tools they need and the pay they deserve," Becerra said. (Presidents don't directly control and can't dictate teacher salaries, although a portion of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act directed funds to shore up local funding for schools.)

David Wils, an 8th grade social studies teacher in North Carolina, gave brief remarks Thursday night—but he didn't talk about K-12.

Instead, Wils, who has $35,000 in student loan debt, detailed his belief that Clinton would help relieve the college debt burden for Americans.

"Teaching offers so many rewards. A big salary isn't one of them," Wils said.

The nation has two educational systems, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in his speech during the 7 o'clock hour: one for rich students, where they work on laptops; and one for poor students, where the most sophisticated technology they encounter is a metal detector.

"That is not educating every child equally," said Cuomo, who's had an uneven relationship with the New York State United Teachers.

Reps. Tim Ryan of Ohio and Becerra promised the crowd that Clinton would put people to work building schools. She expressed a desire to rebuild crumbling schools earlier this year. 

Track Record With Children

When education was discussed throughout the convention, much of it dealt with Clinton's work in her younger years to help children disadvantaged in various ways.

President Bill Clinton made that work a major focus of his Tuesday night speech, ticking off the nominee's efforts in Alabama and Massachusetts, for example, to help put a spotlight on segregated schools and inequality for students with disabilities, respectively. And in Arkansas, Clinton recalled, the nominee worked to improve early-education programs, overhaul the state's academic standards, and change the school funding setup.

That night, both Bill Clinton and Dustin Johnson, an 5th grade teacher in Arkansas, also discussed Clinton's work on improving classroom instruction and educational standards.

In fact, Clinton said in Iowa last December that, "I wouldn't keep any school open that wasn't doing a better-than-average job," although her campaign later clarified that she wasn't intent on shutting down schools en masse.

Connections to Education

Speakers this week also connected hot-button issues in the campaign to education.  

On Wednesday Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut spoke about the 26 students and school staff killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012.

And the daughter of the school's principal, Erica Smegielski, said the nation should not have "our teachers and principals going to work in fear" of gun violence.

The school-to-prison pipeline, meanwhile, made it into the speech given by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Monday.

Clinton's one-time rival for the Democratic nomination, Sanders urged the nation to make sure young people are not "rotting in jail cells" and added, "Hillary Clinton understands that we have to invest in education and jobs for our young people."

The same night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts highlighted Clinton's plan to provide free tuition for public colleges and universities. And the children of undocumented immigrants also spoke about their fears of Donald Trump and their confidence that Clinton would support them.

Assistant Editor Alyson Klein contributed to this post. 

Photos: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with vice presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, July 28; Clinton and Kaine after she finished her acceptance speech; the floor of the DNC the previous day; DNC attendees hold signs in favor of Clinton on Wednesday. (Deanna Del Ciello/Education Week) Hillary Clinton Declares: I Sweat the Policy Details on Education, Children's Issues - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

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Democrats Are Spotlighting A Big Education Problem Pushing Kids Out Of School

Democrats Are Spotlighting A Big Education Problem Pushing Kids Out Of School:

Democrats Are Spotlighting A Big Education Problem Pushing Kids Out Of School

For the first time, the party platform address the school-to-prison pipeline.

Democrats are giving unprecedented attention to a phenomenon that pushes kids out of school and into the criminal justice system.

The Democratic Party platform calls for putting a stop to the school-to-prison pipeline, for the first time ever. The platform, finalized this month, reads:

“We believe a good education is a basic right of all Americans, no matter what zip code they live in. We will end the school-to-prison pipeline and build a cradle-to-college pipeline instead, where every child can live up to his or her God-given potential.”

The school-to-prison pipeline describes an education system that funnels kids ― disproportionately black and brown ones ― out of school and into jail. Reasons for its existence include the proliferation of cops in school, who are more likely to be assigned to buildings where the majority students are minorities. School cops increase the likelihood that a student will be referred to law enforcement, even for a minor offense, according to research from University of Florida law professor Jason Nance.

Practices like school suspensions, which remove kids from classrooms as a form of punishment, add to the pipeline.  

Research shows that just one school suspension makes a student more likely to drop out. High school dropouts are more likely than their peers to end up in the criminal justice system. 

“For the first time ever, our platform calls for ending mass incarceration, shutting down the school-to-prison pipeline, and taking on the challenges of systemic racism,” Maya Harris, senior policy advisor for Hillary Clinton, said in a statement. 

Marlyn Tillman, a member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign ― a national coalition of organizations dedicated to ending the practice of pushing kids out of school ― called the attention “unprecedented.”

“We appreciate these issues we’ve been fighting for a long time have finally been listed by one of the parties in their education agenda,” said Tillman. “Welcome to where we are and will be for quite some time. Our children don’t come with red and blue labels, so we challenge both parties to push for agendas that are child centered.”

One of Tillman’s sons fell prey to the school-to-prison pipeline. When he was in middle school, he was suspended for wearing what school leaders said looked like Democrats Are Spotlighting A Big Education Problem Pushing Kids Out Of School:

California’s new public school history curriculum reflects state’s diversity | The Sacramento Bee

California’s new public school history curriculum reflects state’s diversity | The Sacramento Bee:

California’s new public school history curriculum reflects state’s diversity

Dolores Huerta, vice president of the National Farm Workers Association, and Cesar Chavez, the association’s general director, are seen in November 1965. Carl Crawford Sacramento Bee file

After 10 years, thousands of public comments and contentious debates, the California Department of Education has rewritten the history curriculum for California’s more than 6.2 million public school students.

The new History-Social Science Framework for grades K-12 was adopted by the state school board on July 14. It reflects the struggles and progress of LGBT Americans in the United States and California. It also contains more detail on Latino history, along with the role Filipinos played in both World War II and the United Farm Workers movement.

It includes sections on the impact of the missions on California Indians and the challenges faced by Chinese and Japanese immigrants, including the Asian Exclusion Act of 1882 and the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II.

California’s Hmong history isn’t included, but books by Hmong authors are recommended. The story of Americans with disabilities is also addressed. There’s a much deeper discussion of African American history, relying on slave narratives and firsthand accounts of rebellions and nonviolent protests during the Civil Rights movement.

Nearly every major ethnic group in California has been given a voice in the 900-page rewrite, which is expected to show up in textbooks by 2018.

“We want students to understand that California and this country developed in part because of people like them,” said Tom Adams, deputy superintendent for instruction and learning in the California Department of Education. “At the same time, it’s never been a smooth story of progress. It’s one in which people have had to struggle for equality.”

Once the new standards make their way into textbooks, their impact could be felt nationwide. California is the largest textbook market in the nation, Adams said.

The new curriculum aims to teach students to think critically about key historical events, said Adams, who has been working on the new framework since 2009, along with retired Berkeley professor Onkar Bindra, a Sacramento Sikh.

“We’re not going to tell them how to think on each issue,” Adams said. “Along with beingCalifornia’s new public school history curriculum reflects state’s diversity | The Sacramento Bee:

Renowned Scholars Examine Effective, Equitable School Reforms in New NEPC Book

Renowned Scholars Examine Effective, Equitable School Reforms in New NEPC Book:

Renowned Scholars Examine Effective, Equitable School Reforms in New NEPC Book

With chapters written by a who’s who of the educational research world—a collection of authors that Larry Cuban describes as “a cast of all-star scholars” and Gloria Ladson-Billings calls “some of the nation’s best minds”—the National Education Policy Center released its latest book: “Learning from the Federal Market-Based Reforms: Lessons for ESSA.” Editors William Mathis and Tina Trujillo brought these researchers together to create a critique of recent reforms followed by a series of proven, research-based reform strategies.

With states now finalizing their improvement plans for the new federal “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA), the book provides a timely guide for policymakers and practitioners.

BookPointing to the need to move beyond the discredited test-based, discipline-and-punish mentality, David Kirp says the volume makes a clear and convincing case for a genuine reform agenda. “It’s a must-read for anyone concerned about the quality of American education.”

Pedro Noguera adds, “This book points to what we must do differently if we are to succeed in providing all children an education that will prepare them for life in the 21st Century.”

Throughout the book, scholars such as David Berliner, Gary Orfield, Mike Rose, Janelle Scott, Richard Rothstein, and Angela Valenzuela remind readers that reform requires society to address the root causes of inequities within schools and beyond the school walls, closing opportunity gaps wherever they arise. The community must address deprivation, poverty, racism and the inadequate and unequal distribution of resources.

Among the federally promoted reforms examined in the book are school choice, testing, teacher evaluation and school reconstitution. Other chapters look at the research around class size, early education, adequate and equitable funding, community involvement, and detracking.

In its foreword, Jeannie Oakes praises theBack cover book as a tool for closing the gap between research knowledge and education policy decisions: “We must marry the best empirical evidence with efforts to shift cultural norms and increase the political power of those who are seen as the beneficiaries of research-based reforms. We must convince our communities, large and small, of the relationship between having better facts and being better people. . . . [W]e have this book to help.”

The book is available from Information Age Publishing here and from major booksellers.

EARLY ORDER SAVINGS – Purchase the book on the IAP website at a substantially reduced price of $30 per paperback or $70 per hardcover plus s/h. The code to use at checkout is LFMBR30350.

The book will also be available as an eBook within the next 90 days from Google, Apple, and over 25 other online outlets.

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu

Find Documents: 
Press Release: http://nepc.info/node/8137

Renowned Scholars Examine Effective, Equitable School Reforms in New NEPC Book:

Clinton’s vice-presidential pick could raise profile of K-12 issues in presidential campaign | EdSource

Clinton’s vice-presidential pick could raise profile of K-12 issues in presidential campaign | EdSource:

Clinton's vice-presidential pick could raise profile of K-12 issues in presidential campaign

One issue that has strangely taken a back seat in the presidential campaign so far has been K-12 education.

That could change with the selection of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., as Hillary Clinton’s running mate.

Because of Clinton’s lifelong interest in and attention to early childhood education, early learning and preschool have featured far more prominently than what happens to children in kindergarten through high school.

She has made lowering costs of going to college a central  part of her education platform, echoing proposals put forward by her major rival, Bernie Sanders.

In her acceptance speech Wednesday night she spoke at some length about her plans to make “college tuition free for the middle class and debt free for all,” and “liberating millions of people who already have student debt.”

“It’s just not right that Donald Trump can ignore his debate, but students and families can’t refinance theirs,” she said.

She also observed that “a four-year degree should not be the only path to a job,”  and pledged to “help more people learn a skill or practice a trade and make a good living doing it.”

In her speech she made passing references to “teachers who change lives” and the right of Americans to have access to a “good school,” but those were the only references to K-12 education.  She has previously expressed support for the Common Core standards in English and math in a pro forma way Clinton’s vice-presidential pick could raise profile of K-12 issues in presidential campaign | EdSource:

 

Big Education Ape: Tim Kaine Loves Public Schools. So Does His Wife Anne, Who is Virginia’s Secretary of Education http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/tim-kaine-loves-public-schools-so-does.html

The future of school accountability under ESSA | Brookings Institution

The future of school accountability under ESSA | Brookings Institution:

The future of school accountability under ESSA

On July 27, the Brown Center on Education Policy hosted a discussion on the recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act. The panel was moderated by Arne Duncan, nonresident senior fellow with the Brown Center and former U.S. Secretary of Education for the Obama administration. The other two panelists were Hanseul King, State Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, and Chris Minnich, Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The No Child Left Behind Act: What Has Been Learned

Following a brief introduction from Brown Center Director Michael Hansen, the panel launched into a discussion of the predecessor to ESSA, the No Child Left Behind act. Mr. Minnich spoke highly of the continued testing mandate of NCLB under ESSA. He stated that NCLB was crucial in instigating state collection of student achievement data and disaggregation of data to identify achievement gaps, declaring that “we cannot go back to a time where we don’t have information on how schools are doing.” However, Mr. Minnich also urged states to learn from their struggles under NCLB, particularly state communication of information and expectations to schools and parents. He recalled that under NCLB several state agencies successfully began to track school performance and demanded that underperforming schools provide plans to raise student achievement, but failed to provide resource support or follow up on implementation. ESSA should give states an opportunity to provide more flexibility and support to fix those problems of the past.

The panelists additionally spoke to the power of higher, clearly defined, standards that were promoted during Race to the Top and the NCLB waiver period. Ms. Kang attributed rapid DC Public School achievement growth to teachers adapting to new standards by changing the types of teaching and learning taking place in classrooms. One example was a new writing assessment that asked students to analyze texts, rather than free-write an imaginative narrative. Ms. Kang described classroom practices focused on reading, discussing, and analytically writing about texts just a few years after adoption of the new assessment. Mr. Minnich concurred with the support for higher standards, remarking that the states that have established clear, higher, standards have seen students rise to the challenge and drive state-wide progress in student achievement.

The Ideal Accountability System

Under ESSA, states will be taking greater control of accountability systems. So what would an ideal accountability system look like? The panelists began by describing the dangers of having too many or too few metrics of student achievement. Under NCLB, a single proficiency standard was used to measure student progress. With so much weight on this one indicator, states were incentivized to push schools and districts to solely chase after higher proficiency rates in reading and math. Yet a system with fifteen to twenty metrics is easily just as ineffective, leading to confusion with unclear educational priorities. Thus, Mr. Minnich explains, an effective accountability system would be holistic while still focusing on clear priorities. Districts should first decide what they value and what improvements they want to see in their schools, and based on these established values, pick three or four clear metrics to focus on. These may include proficiency, growth, graduation rates, student engagement, and college or career-readiness. A limited number of such clear metrics would be easy to report and communicate clearly to schools, parents, and communities.

States will also have to decide on a balance between input-based metrics and output-based metrics. As Ms. Kang said, there is likely no magic proportion between the two, and indeed a large benefit of ESSA is in allowing states to design their accountability measures around their individual contexts. But to inform decisions, states will need a balance of both. Mr. Minnich explained “input metrics tell you how to improve; output metrics tell you where you are.” Both are clearly crucial to the task of identifying problems in school systems and solving them.

Addressing the Achievement Gap

Another important topic for states will be the achievement gap. The panelists agreed that states need to acknowledge historical underinvestment in education resources for certain minority racial groups and establish a dedicated commitment to now overinvesting in children from disadvantaged situations. Ms. Kang discussed the DC Publics Schools’ At-Risk Fund, a new category of spending dedicated to providing additional support for students considered at risk due to factors such as poverty, foster care, or homelessness. Mr. Duncan further discussed the challenge of local, property-tax-based school funding as a contribution to unequal resources and student achievement. He raised the idea of monetary incentives to attract the best faculty and staff to work in high-need schools, underscoring the need for states to overinvest in disadvantaged children and their schools to compensate for at-risk factors.

More Work to be Done

Even after states establish their educational priorities and accountability systems, more questions will have to be answered. How districts will work to raise student achievement matters. For example, focusing on underperforming schools is necessary, but using high-performing and high-growth schools as exemplary models can help districts define what they are aiming for. For effective implementation and a smooth transition from NCLB, states will need to communicate expectations and available support clearly with districts and schools. States will also need to decide what to do when new data, potential metrics, and methods of change are available. Teacher certification and renewal, for example, could prove a useful tool in impacting teaching processes for higher student achievement. It falls to states to determine how they will respond to their increasing quantities of information and new responsibilities.

With the end of NCLB and the beginning of ESSA, there is clearly much work to be done. As Ms. Kang put it, “the power is not just in having information, but how the system should be designed.” How states choose to design new accountability systems will clearly be a large development in years to come.

A full audio recording of the event can be found here.

Helen Zhang contributed to this post.The future of school accountability under ESSA | Brookings Institution:

Teachers' unions sense momentum at DNC

Teachers' unions sense momentum at DNC:

Teachers' unions sense momentum at DNC

The American Federation of teachers endorsed Clinton over Obama in 2008 and their support of her continues.

President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten.

Teachers' union leaders will admit it's been a tough 16 years for them--ever since George W. Bush swept into office with an aggressive reform agenda that Barack Obama has largely carried forward.

But labor leaders have held their heads noticeably higher at this week's Democratic National Convention thanks to recent changes in the education landscape and the party's nomination of Hillary Clinton, who is considered a more reliable ally than Obama.

"I think what we're seeing right now gives me hope," said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, head of the National Education Association (NEA), at a Wednesday forum hosted by The Atlantic.

Teachers' unions have historically been a pillar of support for Democratic politicians, both in terms of organizing and financial backing. During the Obama years, however, that patronage didn't buy much favor. The Obama administration pushed increased teacher accountability, school turnarounds, and other education reforms that have long irked unions. That tension manifested in 2014 when the NEA called on Obama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, to resign. It was perhaps the most striking example of how far the Democratic party had drifted from union orbit.

Recent events, however, paint a far sunnier picture for the NEA and America's second-largest teacher's union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Late last year, Congress passed a new education bill to replace No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era law that paved the way for many reform measures. In March, a Supreme Court deadlock thwarted--at least for now--a challenge to the union dues structure that could have greatly diminished union clout.

Now union leaders get to parade around Philadelphia in support of a new Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks Teachers' unions sense momentum at DNC:

More and more Minnesota students are opting out of standardized tests - StarTribune.com

More and more Minnesota students are opting out of standardized tests - StarTribune.com:

More and more Minnesota students are opting out of standardized tests

The trend is especially pronounced in Minneapolis high schools and raises questions about accuracy of test scores.

Leaders in the Minneapolis Public school district said this week that the accuracy of this year's standardized test scores for some of their schools was damaged because a significant number of students opted out of taking the tests.

This year's Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments data, released Thursday, shows that Minneapolis high schools in particular will have a hard time relying on the tests to assess the progress of their students in meeting achievement goals.

The data also show that opting out is a growing -- although still small -- trend elsewhere, as well.

In the 2015-16 school year, 94 out of every 10,000 students statewide refused to take the math tests, up from 3 per 10,000 just 4 years earlier. A lower rate of students refused to take the reading tests, but that has also risen sharply from four per 10,000 students to 74 per 10,000.

Breaking it down by grade level shows that 10th graders (reading test) and 11th graders (math test) have the highest opt-out rates.

In addition to opting out, other students don't take the tests because they are absent that day or have a medical exemption. Some students don't complete the exams and other exams are found to be invalid. But the number of students not taking the test for those reasons is far lower than those who simply choose not to take it. Opt-outs account for more than half of the cases for not taking the reading or math test.

State education commissioner Brenda Cassellius said the number of opt-outs might actually be higher because the data doesn’t account for students who refuse to take the test on the spot. The opt-out numbers only count those who alerted the school ahead of time. 

“I think our numbers are even larger,” Cassellius said.

Less than 2 percent of students statewide don’t take, or don’t complete, the tests, either because of opting out or these various other reasons.

State and federal law requires that schools see 95 percent participation on state accountability exams. The implications of not meeting that standard are still unknown as the state works to rewrite its laws to comply with the More and more Minnesota students are opting out of standardized tests - StarTribune.com:

Fethullah Gulen: Moderniser or Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? « CSS Blog Network

Fethullah Gulen: Moderniser or Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? « CSS Blog Network:

Fethullah Gulen: Moderniser or Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

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

This article was originally published by S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) on 19 July 2016

Synopsis

Fethullah Gulen, leader of one of the world’s largest Islamic movements, is accused of attempting to topple Turkish President Erdogan in a failed military coup. Is Gulen a modernist religious leader or a conspirator?

Commentary

BELIEVERS SAY he preaches a new, modernist form of Islam. Critics charge he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing preparing to convert secular Turkey into an Islamic republic. They accuse Fethullah Gulen of being a conspirator who has created a state within the state and attempted this weekend to topple the democratically elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a failed military coup.

That was not how past Turkish governments or for that matter Erdogan in his eight years as prime minister saw Gulen, the leader of one of the world’s largest and wealthiest Islamic movements.

Cherished Ally and Weapon

Back in the 1990s, secular prime ministers Tansu Ciller and Mesut Yilmaz and other prominent political leaders viewed Gulen as their weapon against the pro-Islamic Refah (Welfare) Party, the predecessor of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), that advocated Turkey’s divorce from the West and a return to its Islamic and Ottoman roots.

Erdogan too initially saw. Gulen as a cherished ally. The two men worked together to force the staunchly secular military to accept civilian control in line with one of the European Union’s demands for future Turkish membership. It fitted both men’s goal of lifting French-style laicist restrictions on freedom of religious expression that had long been resisted by the military. Erdogan had at the time no problem with Gulen’s followers establishing a power base in the police force and the military.

This weekend’s failed coup suggests that elements of the military still believe in a non-constitutional role of the military. Yet, at the same time, it is to the credit of Erdogan and Gulen, that significant parts of the military, the opposition and the public backed Turkey’s democratically elected president and helped foil the coup irrespective of what they thought of his politics and leadership.

Gulen’s moves into branches of government, reflected his long-term strategy. Gulen preached obedience to the state and recognition of the rule of law while at the same time inserting his followers into key institutions of the state and educating a next generation in his ideological mould.

Indeed, more than half a century after he first became a government employed imam, Gulen adopted the role. He often dresses in a crumpled sports jacket and slacks, looking the part of a modern religious leader rather than a fervent Turkish nationalist or a militant Islamist. A doleful 75-year-old, he moreover talks the talk, avoiding language often employed by Turkey’s right-wing nationalists and Islamists.

Modernist approach

As a result, Gulen’s modernist approach appealed to urban conservatives and some more liberal segments of the middle class. His approach contrasted starkly with that of Mr. Erdogan, who targeted the more rural conservatives and the nationalists.

It was indeed Gulen’s advocacy of tolerance, dialogue and worldly education as well as his endorsement of Turkey’s close ties to Europe that endeared him to the country’s secular leaders of the 1990s and subsequently to Erdogan. “By emphasising our support for education and the media, we can prove that Islam is open to contemporary things,” he said in a rare interview with a foreign correspondent.

A diabetic with a heart ailment, Gulen has devoted himself since officially retiring in the early 1990s to writing tracts on Islam. Yet there is little in his writing or the administration of institutions linked to him that points in the direction of theological renewal.

Gulen among other things takes a conservative view of the role of women. Not surprisingly, Gulen’s movement operates separate schools for boys and girls. Yet, even Gulen has evolved.

When in the mid-1990s a woman visitor asked directions to a toilet at the Istanbul headquarters of his Zaman newspaper, officials said the multi-story building wasn’t equipped for women visitors. That has changed and women’s toilets were installed long before Erdogan’s police went in in March of this year to take over the paper.

Long term objective

Critics charge that Gulen’s professed moderation may not be what he really hopes to achieve. “Fethullah’s main project is the takeover of the state. That is why he was investing in education. They believe the state will just fall into their lap because they will be ready for it, they will have the people in place. That is their long-term plan,” said a prominent liberal Turkish intellectual.

Indeed, Gulen’s movement, despite the imam’s long-term vision, effectively sought to check Erdogan’s government in late 2013 with charges of corruption against ministers in the then prime minister’s cabinet and members of his family. The charges and alleged evidence to back them up were never tested in a court of law.

For Erdogan the charges were the straw that broke the camel’s back. What had been an increasingly public parting of ways that started with a soccer match fixing scandal in 2011 turned in late 2013 into open warfare with Erdogan firing or moving thousands of judiciary personnel and police officers to other jobs, shutting down the investigation, and seeking to destroy Gulen’s religious, educational and commercial empire.

The fact that the police played a key role in foiling this weekend’s coup attempt bears testimony to the degree to which Erdogan has succeeded in erasing Gulen’s influence in the police. This weekend’s dismissal of almost 3,000 judges and the issuance of arrest warrants for 140 of them on allegations of involvement with Gulen, suggests that Erdogan believes that his efforts to destroy the imam’s infrastructure were more successful in the police than they were in the judiciary.

None of this amounts to evidence of Erdogan’s assertion that Gulen engineered this weekend’s coup attempt. Like so much in recent years, Erdogan has used the alleged threat of a state within a state as well as increasingly authoritarian measures to remove his critics from the media and academia and to cow the parliamentary opposition to turn Turkey into an a more authoritarian state.

Erdogan’s illiberal version of Turkish democracy in which the public is invited to protest on his behalf but not against him makes uttering unsubstantiated allegations relatively easy. Erdogan will however have to produce hard evidence if he formally goes ahead with a request that the United States extradite Gulen, who is a green card holder resident in Pennsylvania.

Even if those that staged the failed coup turn out to be followers of Gulen, Erdogan would still have to prove that Gulen was aware and involved in their plans.

Back in 2011, during the soccer match fixing scandal, Gulen apologised to one of the involved club executives. The preacher said if his followers were involved in prosecuting soccer executives and players, he was not aware of that. It was a rare admission that Gulen, by now a frail old man, may no longer be in control of the empire he built.

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About the Author

James M. Dorsey PhD is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and author of the just-published The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

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