Teacher: ‘There simply is a lot working against us’ - The Washington Post

Teacher: ‘There simply is a lot working against us’ - The Washington Post:

Teacher: ‘There simply is a lot working against us’

This post is an open letter to teachers in North Carolina from one of their colleagues, Stuart Egan, who blogs at  Caffeinated Rage about the assault on public education by legislators in his state. Egan is an English teacher in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School system, having taught all grades and levels of high school English. He currently teaches AP English Language and Composition and Shakespeare 101 and 102.

[A teacher’s reading assignment for legislators — and there will be a test]

In his letter to colleagues, Egan writes about the difficulties that teachers — and public education — face in North Carolina today, though the overall sentiments don’t have to stop at the state borders.  Many of the issues he discusses are equally true in other states.

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Egan makes reference to several bills specific to North Carolina. HB2 (House Bill 2) is the bathroom bill that discriminates against the LGBT population. TABOR is the badly named Taxpayer Bill of Rights where legislators are trying to put an amendment in the state constitution to cap state income tax at 5.5 percent. In North Carolina it is officially called House Bill 3 (HB3), and Egan says it would badly hurt public services.   Here’s his letter:

Public school teachers,

You can’t really be measured.

In fact, those who are measuring you do not have instruments complex enough to really gauge your effectiveness.

If you are a public school teacher in North Carolina, you are always under a bit of a microscope when it comes to accountability. Everybody in the community has a stake in the public education system: students attend schools, parents support efforts, employees hire graduates, and taxpayers help fund buildings and resources.

But there are those who really question the path that public education has taken in North Carolina and lack confidence in our teachers and their ability to mold young people. The countless attacks waged by our General Assembly on public 

Teacher: ‘There simply is a lot working against us’ - The Washington Post:

Why the Rich Need Racists: Prejudice as Social Control | gadflyonthewallblog

Why the Rich Need Racists: Prejudice as Social Control | gadflyonthewallblog:

Why the Rich Need Racists: Prejudice as Social Control

“HELP WANTED: RACISTS
Anywhere, USA

-Must have an irrational fear and hatred of all things African American.

-Must honestly believe black people get all the breaks, have it easier than whites.

-Must believe black people are naturally inferior to whites, lazy, prone to criminality, less intelligent, etc.

-Must believe racism ended with either (1) the civil rights movement or (2) slavery.

But must hide these beliefs under a thin veneer of civility. For instance:

-must never use the N-word (in public)

-must never beat or kill a black person (unless on the police force)

-must never light a burning cross on a black person’s lawn (and get caught)

-must never tweet or express these views publicly in a way that can be traced back to you.

Enjoyment of rap music, black culture or black sexual partners optional. Fox News viewership preferred.

Bonus pay if racism is unrecognized by the applicant.

No experience necessary. Apply within.”

If you saw an advertisement like the above posted in your local shop window, it really wouldn’t be so surprising. Would it?

Well maybe because of it’s bluntness. But it’s not really that different from campaign fliers for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump vowing to “Make America Great Again!”

Throughout it’s history, when exactly was America great for black and brown peoplewho have been denied equal rights? When was it great for women or LGBTs or a host Why the Rich Need Racists: Prejudice as Social Control | gadflyonthewallblog:

Representative Ruth Kagi is no friend of public education | Seattle Education

Representative Ruth Kagi is no friend of public education | Seattle Education:

Representative Ruth Kagi is no friend of public education

 Let’s take big money out of politics starting with Ruth Kagi.

There is a race in the 32nd Legislative District in Seattle where an educator, Wesley Irwin, is running against an establishment Democrat who has been in office for too long.

This post will be about the incumbent, Representative Ruth Kagi, who I have mentioned briefly in two previous posts, The Proposition 1B “Preschool for All” Wheel of Fortune: Same players, new game and Money for charters but nothing for public schools? It’s time for a recall in Washington State.

First, let’s look at Kagi’s record on public school education.

On charter schools:

In the Washington State Democrat’s platform is the statement “We oppose charter schools”. This plank in the platform was hard fought throughout the state as one Democratic legislative district after another passed resolutions stating that charter schools are unconstitutional and undemocratic and yet Ruth Kagi voted for Bill 6194 allowing state funding to keep open a handful of charter schools that were deemed unconstitutional by the Washington State Supreme Court. Her constituents voted unanimously against Bill 6194 and against charter schools in any form. See Resolution passed unanimously by the 32nd District Democrats regarding any and all legislative bills that would authorize charter schools in Washington State.

But the chronic under-funding of our public schools did not come to a resolution in that same session.

So much for representing the people.

On class size:

Initiative 1351 reducing class sizes was opposed by Kagi  

On a cost of living wage increase for teachers:

Rep. Kagi also voted to suspend the much needed “Teacher Cost of Living Adjustment” (COLA) in 2013, yet she voted for a tax cut that gave the Boeing Company billions of dollars (Bill 2294) and then received the maximum contribution allowable from Boeing the following year.

On the Common Core Standards:

Kagi voted for the Common Core Standards and the related SBAC tests.

So how could Ruth Kagi consistently vote against the will of the people for several years now?

Well, let’s take a look at some of her contributors:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife: Donated $500,000 to push the charter school initiative and contributed to keep the charter schools open after the Supreme Representative Ruth Kagi is no friend of public education | Seattle Education:

Ferris Buellar’s Days Off of Online Home Charter Schools

Ferris Buellar’s Days Off of Online Home Charter Schools:

Ferris Buellar’s Days Off of Online Home Charter Schools

Attendance in traditional public schools is important. If a school age student does not attend school, there is an investigation into why. Children who have chronic absenteeism often drop out of school.

For many corporate bigwigs, the ultimate goal in schooling is to make money by getting students online at home for all their schooling. Call it disruptive education or competency-based or personalized, et cetera. Students go online for the bulk of their instruction, minus teachers—and schools.

The dream is to get rid of those old teachers and bad brick-and-mortar schools.

Ironically, it would seem like parents would want nothing more than to get their kids to limit their use of tech devices. And with all the hype over online instruction, there are two serious problems. One, if students don’t want to log in they don’t have to. Or, they can get someone else to log in for them…what’s called cheating. But that’s another story.

Ohio’s Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is a charter school where Ferris Buellar’s Days Off of Online Home Charter Schools:

Big Education Ape: Many ECOT students spend just one hour online for classes each day, state lawyers say | cleveland.com - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/many-ecot-students-spend-just-one-hour.html

 

Schools Matter: The Basics of the Competency-Based [sic] Scam

Schools Matter: The Basics of the Competency-Based [sic] Scam:

The Basics of the Competency-Based [sic] Scam

Emily Talmage and Alison Hawser McDowell have done major sleuthing into the dark world of "competency-based" education (CBE), which is now the next big thing in corporate education reform.  Sure, charter schools will continue to drain public systems for as long as the public remains uninformed about the greed, racism, and elitist paternalism driving these Wall Street missionaries, but as the public wakes up to the charter scam, the competency-based, "personalized" isolation of online or hybrid schooling will be ready to gain ascendancy, from elementary school through college.  That is why it is so important now to know what is going on in pilot programs across the country and large scale in some states like Maine and New Hampshire.  Alison McDowell wrote this insightful piece last fall.  I have provided some links to Alison's piece for those who find this all new.

by Alison Hawser McDowell
Emily Talmage noticed a connection between ed reformers, those funding CBE, and student loan financing. I was thinking about it today, and I think I see how it will play out. Follow the money. Who stands to gain?

1. Move to the idea of online credentialing. Call it standards-based skills mastery, etc. Get everyone on board with CBE.
2. Break down old-fashioned notion of "seat time." Everything is student-centered and self paced. You don't really need true distinctions between high school (even middle school) and community college and four-year college and professional certifications. It's all just one process of gathering up the "bits" of education required.
3. Collecting badges is seamless and you just transition without any real breaks. If they get rid of physical school buildings and campuses and move learning into an online virtual world that will be easy.
4. Accept that a four-year liberal arts education will be beyond the financial reach of most people. Provide federal funding for community college.
5. Take over the boards of the community colleges to ensure they only offer coursework that is pre-professional and serves industry's needs. 
6. Have the government underwrite or subsidize Associates degrees to boost college completion for more students. But at the end, the students will still need more training.
7. Online for profit [and non-profit] companies (Florida Virtual School and Western Governor's University models) will offer students the chance to get their needed credentials for a price much lower than a Schools Matter: The Basics of the Competency-Based [sic] Scam:

SF Flex charter school closes - Internal Affairs

SF Flex charter school closes - Internal Affairs:

SF Flex charter school closes

The San Francisco Flex Academy’s luck has run out.

Last year, the tiny school serving close to 100 Bay Area students won an unprecedented victory when it convinced members of the State Board of Education to ignore their staff’s wishes and renew its charter for another five years.

It was the first time the board had rejected such a recommendation since California’s first charter school opened 25 years ago.

But in recent weeks, the board’s members, including President Michael Kirst, suddenly acknowledged the laundry list of serious problems documented by California Department of Education staff and in a stunning reversal, made plans to close SF Flex.

Those problems include failure to manage its finances, failure to focus on academics and failure to hold public meetings or publicly post agendas and minutes, a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act, according to state education records.

So why the change of heart?

“It didn’t make sense,” said Mark Kushner, the school’s founder.

The board members all declined to say, but the timing of the Notice of Violation they approved and sent to SF Flex in May could provide some clues.

That action came a few weeks after this news organization published a two-part investigative series on K12 Inc., the company behind a profitable but low-performing network of online schools and ones like SF Flex, which combine online and regular instruction.

The examination revealed that the company reaps tens of millions of dollars annually in state funding while graduating fewer than half of its high school students. And before joining the board in 2011, Kirst worked for K12 as a consultant, advising the company and helping to promote its schools.

In the end, SF Flex closed without fanfare.

Before the board had a chance to drop the ax at the meeting it held this past week in Sacramento, the school’s leaders voted to rescind its charter and close their doors voluntarily.SF Flex charter school closes - Internal Affairs:

 

Big Education Ape: California Reaches Settlement With K12 Over False Claims Allegations - WSJ -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/california-reaches-settlement-with-k12.html

Big Education Ape: Facing tough questions from Calif. officials, virtual charter school operator settles with attorney general | 89.3 KPCC - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/facing-tough-questions-from-calif.html

California Board of Education approves LGBT history curriculum / LGBTQ Nation

California Board of Education approves LGBT history curriculum / LGBTQ Nation:

California Board of Education approves LGBT history curriculum

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In second grade, California students will learn about families with two moms or two dads. Two years later, while studying how immigrants have shaped the Golden State, they will hear how New York nativeHarvey Milk became a pioneering gay politician in San Francisco.

The State Board of Education unanimously approved those changes in classroom instruction Thursday to comply with the nation’s first law requiring public schools to include prominent gay Americans and LGBT rights milestones in history classes.

The updates are part of a broader overhaul of California’s history and social science curriculum. During four hours of public testimony, dozens of speakers criticized the way the framework discusses Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Japan’s use of “comfort women” during World War II, but no one objected to the inclusion of lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgender rights.

Allyson Chiu, who just finished 11th grade at Cupertino High School, said the revisions would make LGBT students more comfortable. She and seven others spoke in favor of how the guidelines address gay issues.

“My classmates can solve quadratic equations or cite the elements on the periodic table. They can’t tell you who Harvey Milk was or the significance of the Stonewall Riots,” Chiu said.

The changes satisfy legislation passed five years ago that added LGBT Americans and people with disabilities to the list of social and ethnic groups whose contributions schools are supposed to teach and must appear in K-8 textbooks.

The law also prohibited classroom materials that reflect adversely on gays or particular religions. Conservative opponents argued that it should be up to parents to decide how and at what age to broach sexual orientation with their children and made two unsuccessful efforts to repeal the law.

The approved framework weaves references to gay Americans and events throughout the history and social science curriculum, starting in second grade through discussions about diverse families and again in fourth grade with lessons on California’s place in the gay rights movement.

The guidelines also touch on the topics in fifth and eighth grade — looking at gender roles in the 18th and 19th centuries and examples of individuals who flouted them — and throughout high school.

A capstone of sorts would come in U.S. government courses, where seniors would learn about the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriagenationwide and recent court cases involving bathroom access for transgender students.

California’s law took effect in January 2012, but its implementation was slowed by California Board of Education approves LGBT history curriculum / LGBTQ Nation:

AFT Delegates Join the AFT BAT Caucus Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

AFT Delegates Join the AFT BAT Caucus

By:  Marla Kilfoyle, Interim Chair AFT BAT Caucus

AFT BAT Caucus Schedule

This year the Badass Teachers Association will launch its caucus in the AFT.  The association already has a vibrant caucus in the NEA.  The read more about the work of the NEA BAT Caucus this year go here  http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2016/07/reflection-by-becca-ritchie-chair-nea.html    BATs is now extending its work into the AFT with the AFT BAT Caucus.  

Here are the tentative by laws due to be voted on by the body on July 18th 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pE-jxn18W247ZWfk60qraFKAdBlDbGXzHgdjDJ-vhhk/edit

The AFT BAT Caucus will be an issue oriented caucus within the AFT. Here is our mission as stated in our by laws:  The Badass Teachers Association Caucus will establish as its mission in the AFT to promote Healthy Workplace, Healthy Schools for Children. In 2015 The Badass Teachers Association Quality of Workplace Team and The American Federation of Teachers Research Department  teamed up to conduct a groundbreaking national survey of teachers/paraprofessionals and their workplace conditions. What the survey found was that teachers/paraprofessionals are not feeling respected, teachers/paraprofessionals are feeling an immense intrusion into their classrooms by lawmakers who have little knowledge about the practice of educating children, teachers/paraprofessionals want to be treated as professionals who CAN make decisions for the children in their care, and finally teachers and paraprofessionals demand removal of humiliation as a form of control in our schools. The AFT BAT Caucus will adopt as its mission, “A Teachers/Paraprofessionals work environment is a student’s learning environment.” Our focus will be to push healthy workplace environments for teachers/paraprofessionals and children through solid scientific research and to push for healthy workplace legislation for America’s teachers and paraprofessionals. Please go here to examine the AFT/BAT survey results.   http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/worklifesurveyresults2015.pdf

To join the caucus go here and fill out this form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy9QnJdpilD1P1sS09qkHcRc27H8o3s3ZdV0DwqVpunBWnaQ/viewform?c=0&w=1

THEN

Go to our website http://www.badassteacher.org/    and pay your dues at the Paypal button.  When you see the "purpose" box please type in AFT BAT Caucus dues.  Dues are $10 a year

If you are NOT a delegate but a member of AFT and wish to support the work of the AFT BAT Caucus you are welcome to also donate and join as a "friend" of the AFT BAT Caucus.

AFT BAT Caucus Schedule

AFT Delegates Join the AFT BAT Caucus

By:  Marla Kilfoyle, Interim Chair AFT BAT Caucus

Badass Teachers Association - http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/

Nation's Largest Teachers Union Endorses Teaching "Climate Justice"

Nation's Largest Teachers Union Endorses Teaching "Climate Justice":

Nation’s Largest Teachers Union Endorses Teaching “Climate Justice”

 In May, the Portland, Oregon school board passed the country’s first comprehensive “climate justice” resolution. The school board voted unanimously to “abandon the use of any adopted text material that is found to express doubt about the severity of the climate crisis or its root in human activities,” and called for all schools to teach a “climate justice” curriculum. The Portland resolution said that students in city schools “should develop confidence and passion when it comes to making a positive difference in society, and come to see themselves as activists and leaders for social and environmental justice—especially through seeing the diversity of people around the world who are fighting the root causes of climate change...”

That effort received a big boost last week in Washington, DC, when the country’s largest union, the National Education Association (NEA), voted at its national convention to support the Portland resolution and to encourage state and local affiliates to create and promote climate literacy resolutions in their own communities, using the Portland resolution as a model. The NEA has close to 3 million members, and its convention is dubbed “the world’s largest deliberative assembly,” with 7,000 delegates.

The effort to pass the resolution was led by teacher delegates from Oregon, Washington, California, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, and included members of the national Badass Teachers (BATs) caucus.

Oregon teacher Kathleen Jeskey was one of the delegates supporting the NEA resolution: “Clearly teachers from all over the country see that it is past time to teach our students the real science of climate change and properly prepare them for the future. BATs is a caucus dedicated to social justice and we realized that no other social justice issue can be dealt with properly if we ignore the issues around climate.”

In addressing the convention, Jeskey paraphrased the Portland climate justice resolution: “We must commit ourselves to providing teachers, administrators, and other school personnel with professional development, curricular materials, and outdoor and field studies that explore the breadth of causes and consequences of the climate crisis as well as potential solutions that address the root causes of the crisis, and do so in ways that are participatory, imaginative, and respectful of students’ and teachers’ creativity and eagerness to be part of addressing global Nation's Largest Teachers Union Endorses Teaching "Climate Justice":

AFT Delegates Join the AFT BAT Caucus

By:  Marla Kilfoyle, Interim Chair AFT BAT Caucus

Badass Teachers Association - http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/

Charter school and union unite on wanting L.A. Unified to pay retiree benefits for charter teachers - LA Times

Charter school and union unite on wanting L.A. Unified to pay retiree benefits for charter teachers - LA Times:

Charter school and union unite on wanting L.A. Unified to pay retiree benefits for charter teachers

The team from El Camino Real Charter High School celebrates on its way to winning the 2014 national Academic Decathlon. The school was regarded as well run before and after becoming a charter, but faces controversies over health benefits and spending. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

 The local teachers union has made rare common cause with a charter school: They are pressing to have the Los Angeles school district — not the charter — pay for costly retiree benefits that are due to teachers who worked at the charter. 

A formal grievance against L.A. Unified, filed recently by United Teachers Los Angeles, is the latest twist involving a group of teachers from El Camino Real Charter High School. It highlights the complicated relationship between charters and the traditional school system — and potentially serious financial issues for each.  

The dispute also is one more headache for the Woodland Hills charter, whose founding principal is under fire for his spending practices. 

The disagreement means that nine veteran El Camino teachers are in limbo over who will pay for retiree health benefits that are estimated to cost the employer $250,000 to $300,000 per worker. El Camino wanted so badly to get out from under this obligation that they offered teachers up to $30,000 in cash if they would return to L.A. Unified just long enough to retire over there.

The district cried foul, refusing to process the paperwork for the benefits. 

That’s when the union emerged as an unlikely ally — for the charter school.

Charters are managed independently of the local school district and exempt from some education regulations. The vast majority are non-union—and the teachers union and pro-charter forces were the major combatants in recent school board elections. The union also has joined many district officials in opposing a proposed, massive charter expansion that, along with other factors, could threaten the district’s solvency, according to an independent panel of experts. 

But El Camino is unionized, which is a main reason the teachers have retiree health benefits in the first place. These benefits help cover what isn’t handled by Medicare, the federal health program for retirees.

Union president Alex Caputo-Pearl said his organization would fight “to enforce our members’ rights under the UTLA/LAUSD contract.” He noted that the district agreed to give El Camino teachers up to five years to return to L.A. Unified after El Camino became a charter.

That five years just ended, but was still in force when the teachers sought to return.

The district counters that teachers had a right to return to work for L.A. Unified, but it’s unfair for them to return just long enough to file for retirement.

School board member Monica Ratliff said she would be “far more sympathetic” if the teachers “actually came back to the district to become district employees and serve our district prior to retiring.” Or if the charter operators had been willing to pay that $30,000 to the district — to help defray L.A. Unified’s increased costs.

The issue became public in April after The Times wrote about the $30,000 bonus. In previous years, the district had apparently allowed at least 49 teachers from El Camino and eight other unionized charters to send their retirees back to L.A. Unified, according to information released as part of a public-records act request.

The charters (or their teachers) that most aggressively pursued this strategy have been El Camino (21, including this year’s group), Granada Hills Charter High School (13) and Birmingham Community Charter High School (12). 

Qualifying non-teaching employees also have taken advantage of the return-to-retire strategy.

Most, if not all, of the affected teachers qualified for lifetime benefits by the “rule of 80,” which combines their years of teaching plus their age at retirement. All worked the Charter school and union unite on wanting L.A. Unified to pay retiree benefits for charter teachers - LA Times:

Chicago Teachers Union, champion of the schools Chicago's students deserve - Chicago Tribune

Chicago Teachers Union, champion of the schools Chicago's students deserve - Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Teachers Union, champion of the schools Chicago's students deserve 

er the last six years, the Chicago Teachers Union has been the most consistent champion of the schools Chicago’s students deserve. As such, we politely disagree with the premise and loose facts in the recent editorial on CTU.

Let’s look at those facts.

Since 2010, CTU has given up more than $2 billion in lost pay raises, employer contributions to our pension fund and thousands of teacher layoffs. Our contributions this year, through the loss of pay, benefits and laid-off teachers and paraprofessionals, stretch well into nine figures.

The biggest cost drivers in the Chicago Public Schools are not teacher salaries. Total teacher and administrator salaries have been flat for the last five years. Yet, costs tied to debt service, charter school proliferation and pension contributions have exploded. CPS’ costs are tied to terrible management decisions, such as skipping 10 years of pension payments or using operations money to pay debt service.

Educators did not agree to the SUPES contract that led former CPS CEO to plead guilty to a felony last year. CTU members did not agree to the Aramark outsourcing deal that cost more but left schools filthy. We did not target the South and West sides of the city with the largest mass school closing in U.S. history. Those decisions were made by the mayor and his hand-picked board of education.

CTU has consistently, and clearly, advocated that the solution to Chicago’s financial challenges is a sustainable source of progressive revenue. We have supported a graduated state income tax, a millionaires’ tax for education and a LaSalle Street tax on speculative trading. Teachers went on a one-day strike for revenue on April 1; the mayor lobbied for none of these. We have also clearly called and advocated for a school funding formula that is both adequate and equitable for school districts across Illinois. CTU was thus instrumental in bringing additional state money to CPS, thereby ensuring that schools will open in September.

CTU’s Big Bargaining Team was prepared to agree to a contract in July 2015. Forrest Claypool torpedoed that agreement.

CTU’s Big Bargaining Team continues to have major concerns about the district’s refusal to limit class sizes (Chicago has some of the largest in the state) and its inability to enforce provisions that would limit unnecessary charter school proliferation.

CTU members are legally required to live in the city. As such, we too will pay for any property tax increase.

Improvements in CPS education are the result of CTU members’ tireless efforts to “do more with less,” not the district’s rotating leadership.

We remain steadfast in our pursuit of the schools Chicago’s students deserve and equity for students across Illinois. We reserve the right to use whatever tools are required for that job.

— Karen Lewis, president, Chicago Teachers UnionChicago Teachers Union, champion of the schools Chicago's students deserve - Chicago Tribune:

 

Turkish scholar allegedly behind coup also accused of running Texas charter schools | Dallas Morning News

Turkish scholar allegedly behind coup also accused of running Texas charter schools | Dallas Morning News:

Turkish scholar allegedly behind coup also accused of running Texas charter schools

The man allegedly behind Turkey's failed coup is an Islamic scholar who's also been accused of ties to Texas' largest charter school network, which itself is facing allegations of discrimination, self-dealing and misspending.

The Dallas Morning News reported in May that the Republic of Turkey accused Fethullah Gulen and his associates of being behind Harmony Public Schools. The nation's leaders even hired a law firm to ask the Texas Education Agency to launch an investigation into the charter schools. Rep. Dan Flynn also asked the Texas Attorney General's Office to investigate the claims in a letter sent Wednesday, The Texas Tribune reports.

Gulen followers have opened many private schools around the globe, including more than 160 science, math and technology-focused public charter schools with different names in numerous states around the U.S., according to Sharon Higgins, an independent researcher on the Gulen movement

These schools deny any relationship to Gulen -- who is said to adhere to a moderate form of Islam -- and the movement denies any relationship to the schools.

But Higgins, who has written extensively about the movement, said it's common for officials at the charter schools to deny any connection but that the Gulen-inspired network is one of the biggest in the U.S.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that the coup attempt on Friday was the work of army officers who are followers of Gulen, who had once been an ally but whose movement has become critical of the increasingly authoritarian regime. 

The Gulen movement denied involvement in the coup, but Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday was quoted as saying the United States would support investigations to determine who instigated the attempted coup and where its support originates. He said he anticipates questions will be raised about Gulen.

Gulen told reporters at his Pennsylvania compound he knows only a "minute fraction" of his legions of sympathizers in Turkey, so he cannot speak to their "potential involvement" in the attempted coup.

"You can think about many motivations of people who staged this coup. They could be sympathizers of the opposition party. They could be sympathizers of the nationalist party. It could be anything," Gulen, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 15 years, said through an interpreter.

Gulen has maintained influence in Turkey through followers in the judiciary and police. Turkish media reported Saturday that 2,745 judges had been removed because of suspicions they have links to the Gulen movement.

Harmony schools, part of the largest charter network in Texas, have won millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. government and are among the highest-achieving in Turkish scholar allegedly behind coup also accused of running Texas charter schools | Dallas Morning News:

Big Education Ape: Reclusive Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, blamed for failed coup in Turkey - LA Times -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/reclusive-muslim-cleric-fethullah-gulen.html

Big Education Ape: US would consider extradition request for exiled cleric -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/us-would-consider-extradition-request.html


 Big Education Ape: Fethullah Gulen: The Islamic scholar Turkey blames for the failed coup - The Washington Post - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/fethullah-gulen-islamic-scholar-turkey.html

Big Education Ape: Jersey Jazzman: What We Don't Know About Gulen-Linked Charter Schools, And Why That's a Problem - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/jersey-jazzman-what-we-dont-know-about.html

Big Education Ape: Coup in Turkey: Is Fetullah Gulen Behind It? | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/coup-in-turkey-is-fetullah-gulen-behind.html

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

 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/1OW1ZfV

Big 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

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: New CPS School Budgets are Stinky Turd Lumps

Ms. Katie's Ramblings: New CPS School Budgets are Stinky Turd Lumps:

New CPS School Budgets are Stinky Turd Lumps

CPS has done it again. If you thought "Student Based Budgeting" was a bad idea (it is) then you will not be surprised to learn about CPS' brand new way to harm kids with budget cuts and to blame principals for the fallout.

Let's call it..."lumping." Instead of the previous system that funded special education positions (teachers and support staff) centrally, now CPS is lumping ALL sped and general education monies into one giant half-empty bucket. When student-based budgeting hit the schools three years ago, essentially slashing budgets, special education remained relatively protected. I mean, special education has...well, "special" protections under federal law.

Not that CPS didn't try to cut those darn expensive special education services. Last year, CPS DID slash those budgets. Only to receive a crap load of "appeals" from schools that ended up forcing the district to shell out even MORE money for sped. Turns out, special education has NEVER been funded adequately. (I know, I know...I'll give you a moment to get over your shock.)

So this year...I gotta give it to those wily CPS budget shenanigan-makers...they came up with a pretty ingenious way to cut back on expensive sped. They are going to make principals steal from the general education population! In order to meet those pesky federal requirements for special education, principals will be forced to cut gen ed positions, specials, after-school programs, and who know what else in order to fund the protected Ms. Katie's Ramblings: New CPS School Budgets are Stinky Turd Lumps: