With the Middle East in tremendous tumult, who are some of the players in this drama?
One is Imam Gulen, a behind-the-scenes godfather-type of what is believed to be the largest network of charter schools in the U.S. That network includes the 11 Magnolia Public Schools in California. The CEO of the Magnolia is Caprice Young, a former LAUSD board member.
Wesley Clark, retired four-star general, recently put the Gulen-linked schools in perspective as did former Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon.
Their question: Why are U.S. tax dollars going to schools that are effectively run by an individual with a large following in Turkey determined to undermine the Turkish government? That government also happens to be a critical and seriously embattled U.S. ally in a perilous region of the world.
Many critics of the Magnolia Schools-Gulen Schools organization are not fixated on foreign policy issues.
Instead they see a California Magnolia schools network that 1) is fraught with well-documented financial irregularities involving its handling of U.S. tax dollars, 2) prefers to import significant numbers of H-1B visa-holding Turkish nationals to work in its schools, 3) and has failed to live up to the promise of the charter school philosophy – that parents will have significant control over school governance.
What is this all about? See the Gen. Clark press release here.
Mr. Schwada may be contacted at john.schwada@gmail.com
Magnolia Science Academy is a troubled organization that should never have been approved to open back in 2001, their application was garbage. 8 applicants, all men but 1 woman. All Turks but 1 token gavur, none had been in the USA over 6 years, nor had they had any educational experience in the USA. All are gone from California except for 2 the rest are all back in Turkey with 2 that live on the East Coast.
Caprice Young is a pathological liar and needs to be out of education. When she was president of LAUSD BOE is when this group of misfits had their 1st charter school approved. They have to be stopped.