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| Charter Schools Use Turkish Ties, Visas To Get Teachers | ||
| 2014-10-07 | ||
The charter school also employs seven foreign teachers, mostly from Turkey, brought to the U.S. on H-1B visas for jobs it says Ohio teachers are unqualified to fill. Concept Schools, founded by followers of Fethuallah Gulen, a Turkish Islamic holy man secluded in the Poconos, already is under federal and state scrutiny for possible irregularities in teacher licensing, testing and technology contracts. An Enquirer investigation has found that reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... -based Concept Schools, which runs Horizon and 17 other charter schools in Ohio, annually imports dozens of foreign teachers in numbers that far surpass any other school system in the state. At least 474 foreign teachers, again mostly from Turkey, have arrived at Concept's Ohio schools between 2005 and 2013. The schools are collecting about $45 million in state funds annually to educate 6,600 children in kindergarten through high school. Critics say H-1B visas were designed to help companies temporarily employ highly skilled foreign workers in biotechnology, chemistry, engineering and other specialized fields ‐ not K-12 teachers. The Ohio Department of Education is weighing complaints from former Concept staffers that unlicensed, foreign teachers were used. Ohio teachers, meanwhile, say plenty of qualified teachers are available for jobs being filled by the foreigners, especially since about 40,000 are still without teaching jobs because of the recession. Concept officials defend the practice. They say it's the only way to find qualified math and science instructors, adding that the international teachers add to the cultural experience of students. "These teachers are hired legally and are here legally," company vice president Salim Ucan said. "It's not like we're sneaking them across the borders. These are highly qualified people who have gone through the legal process to come here and make a difference in the lives of kids." Academically, Concept students perform no better or worse than children at the nearly 300 other charter schools in Ohio. Ten of the Ohio Concept schools ‐ more than half ‐ received Ds on the state's most recent performance index, a measure of how many students passed key achievement tests. Horizon Science Academy was one of the schools getting a D. About 88 percent of this year's 448 students students are black, and 5 percent are Hispanic. More than 91 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch, so the school provides free breakfast and lunch to all students. Like all charter schools, Horizon is run by a private company using state funds diverted from the local public school system. Many charter students have trouble learning in conventional public or private schools. Others seek an alternative to public schools, which may have their own performance or discipline issues. School officials say Horizon's low test scores reflect the "transient nature" of the student population. "We don't turn any kids away, even the ones that aren't really wanted elsewhere," said Michael Bidwell, the school's instructional coordinator. "Some of these kids have been at multiple schools, sometimes within the same school year. But we're not going to give up on you."
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| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Why this outreach to a mainly poor African-American community? Given the success in gaining converts in prison they probably figure the home turf to be a good place to convert more to Islam. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-10-07 07:55 |