Arne Duncan issues a public statement about the Gulen movement's charter schools! Not.

I fully expect that my comment left at Town Hall: 140 Characters at a Time, a Twitter town hall with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, will not be published, and will be quite surprised if it is. In either case, I've decided to make it into a blog post here.

Sharon says:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

November 17, 2011 at 5:22 pm

I would like Secretary Duncan to issue a public statement explaining his views on the 131 charter schools being operated by the Gulen movement. Each year, since 1999, members of this extremely controversial, cult-like religious group out of Turkey have opened several new charter schools. The enrollment of these schools currently exceeds 35,000 students.

Why does the U.S. Department of Education continuously permit these schools to conceal their religious affiliation from parents, school board members, and authorizing agencies?

Public school privatization potentiated by a racial dynamic

"...privatization justified by identity politics."

Ramsin Canon is politics editor for Gapers Block, a Chicago-centric news and commentary web publication. This is from his piece “How & Why a Democratic President Privatized Our School System” (emphasis mine).

Barack Obama is presiding over the beginning of a process that will inexorably result in the privatization of our school system. That doesn’t mean of course that all of our schools will be owned by big corporations; rather it means that within the next five to ten years, our largest school systems will be enmeshed with the private sector, and the regulatory framework that encourages same will be defended vociferously by a new and fierce network of rent seekers. Within a generation, “public schools” will be public only in the sense that they will rely on primarily on government money–similar in that way to the defense industry...

...How this [privatization] has happened is pretty straightforward. An originally far-right idea, that the government had no business running anything, including schools, worked its way into the Democratic Party consensus at precisely the rate that the left-wing, as represented by autonomous labor unions and working-class advocates were pushed out (i.e., the rise of the “left neoliberals”).

More specifically, those industrialists and Randite funders of school privatization efforts–in the form of vouchers originally, and eventually charters–created alliances with big city Democratic Party institutions. Here was an issue where the market-logic obsession could be easily masked by concern for “the children,” which is not necessarily insincere. Mayors like Daley, Bloomberg, Fenty and others loved this new alliance because it played into the big media obsession–Democrats who were weren’t stuck in “special interest” politics, who subscribed to the New Economy/Silicon Valley ethos that venture capitalists and their hired gun technocrats could solve every problem, whereas working class people representing themselves were too dumb/myopic to actually affect change (besides, if they’re so smart, why aren’t they rich!?)

A hop, skip, and a jump. In Chicago, the Democratic Party establishment absorbed this ethos by Mayoral fiat. Chicago’s Democratic Party infrastructure was dissimilar from past “Machine” iterations because it was hard-wired through the person of the Mayor; his mid-90s rapture into the VC/technocrat stratosphere trickled down to those in the party who had ambitions outside of Cook County politics. People like Barack Obama, whose institutional ties to the University of Chicago, where he lectured and which he represented (in a sickeningly self-gerrymandered district) almost required those kinds of allegiances.

Bashing teachers unions has a pedigree among black nationalists that made it ideal for Machine Lite-style politics. For big city Mayors it was great; and for state Senator Barack Obama, it was perfect. He could deepen his ties to major identity-focused organizations like UNO and The Woodlawn Organization that supported charters and attend fundaraisers [sic] and cocktail parties with the Steans’ of the world. Noted career failure Arne Duncan grabbed hold of his coattails, and you have the Chicago model ascending to the national stage: privatization justified by identity politics...

Yes, privatization justified by identity politics.

Ramsin Canon discusses the politics of Chicago's public schools in this June 10, 2010 interview HERE.

600 charter schools x 200 graduates/year = 120,000 Turkish sympathizers produced every year

Tim Stellar, a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, has written extensively about the Sonoran Science Academy school network and its ties to the Gulen movement. In May 2010, he posted a story about a column by a well-known Turkish journalist and political figure, Nazli Ilicak, which appeared in a popular Turkish daily newspaper on September 2, 2009.

In her piece, Ilicak related a conversation she recently had with two prominent Turkish men about the Gulen movement’s U.S. charter schools.

Charles Blow

During this exciting emergent era becoming known as #Occupy, Charles M. Blow is producing some of the most relevant mainstream media work for the New York Times.  The image below accompanied his piece, "America's Exploding Pipe Dream", published on October 28, 2011. 


Funny how the ed deformers will never address any of this. Only dummies, people wearing blinders, or henchmen for privatization would deny that these dismal rankings are connected to America's struggling international standing and its achievement gap.

Click on the image for increased clarity.

Maybe the DFER-type Democrats should live abroad

Democrats Abroad, the official Democratic Party organization for Americans who are living outside the United States, has issued this very sane education platform proposal to the Democratic National Committee, in great conceptual contrast to what so many Democrats are pushing here. Democrats Abroad is recognized as a "state" Party by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and is represented on the DNC by eight voting members, as well as at the quadrennial Democratic National Convention. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DRAFT RESOLUTION ON STRENGTHENING QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR ALL AMERICAN YOUNG PEOPLE

Proposed by Chair Democrats Abroad France, Constance Borde assisted by the Democrats Abroad France Education Policy Group Chair: Dr. Leslie J. Limage

(Originally submitted to DA Resolutions Committee on September 14, 2011, Approved for transmission to the DA Platform Committee by the DCPA on October 17, 2011, Washington, D.C.)

WHEREAS education is a human right and public responsibility to provide all children and young people with the opportunity to realize their full potential (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26).

WHEREAS ongoing policies inherited from the previous U.S. Administration and carried forward by current leadership are undermining the quality of education as well as our longstanding commitment to equal opportunity, the alleviation of poverty, civil rights and respect for linguistic, social and cultural diversity in a misplaced reliance on business practices and privatization of public education.

WHEREAS what we need to improve education is a strong, highly respected education profession; a rich curriculum in the arts and sciences, available in every school for every child; assessments that gauge what students know and can do, and a government that is prepared to change the economic and social conditions that interfere with children’s readiness to learn.

WHEREAS we cannot improve education by quick fixes, by handing over our public schools to entrepreneurs, by driving out experienced professionals replacing them with enthusiastic amateurs, or by closing them and firing teachers and entire staff. No country in the world follows such strategies.

WHEREAS disadvantage in our country is exacerbated by unsafe and crumbling schools. Over the past three years, investments in school improvements have benefited the wealthier districts disproportionately. The President’s new job’s creation legislation announced in his September 9, 2011 speech to Congress on an “American Jobs Act” is intended to remedy this situation and we need to ensure that it does in fact do so.

BE IT RESOLVED that Democrats Abroad adopt the following education policy foundations for our platform in 2012 many of which already figured in our 2008 Platform and that these principles figure in our 2012 Party Platform:

The Purpose of education: is to enable all children and young people to reach their full potential as individuals and become socially responsible citizens of our country and the world.

Equality of opportunity and non-discrimination are the foundations of our democratic society and must be reflected in all aspects of educational governance, management, finance, school facilities, teaching and support professions.

Formative Evaluation and Assessment should encourage learning. The evaluation of students should be diagnostic. The results of student evaluation should not be used to evaluate teachers and schools as institutions. The evaluation of schools should celebrate the strengths of community ownership of and improvement by school communities.

The teaching and school leadership professions. Teachers and their organizations should be viewed by governments as equal partners, independent but committed to the common endeavor of achieving successful education systems. School leadership, governance and management also require professional knowledge and the specificity of public service and education. Outsourcing any aspect of educational leadership de-professionalizes key foundations of our education systems and decision-making based on knowledge, experience, trust and democratic principles. Education professionals’ collective bargaining rights acquired over many years should be respected rather than threatened.

Educational facilities: quality, safe and environmentally friendly schools. Public schools are an important element of our nation’s infrastructure. Repairing strengthening, upgrading and constructing schools are essential. A nationwide effort needs to be initiated to anticipate and improve the adaptability of the nations’  existing and yet to be built school infrastructure, including regular rehabilitation and upgrades.

Promoting Equality through Inclusive Education. It is the responsibility of public authorities to ensure that all citizens have access to high quality education services appropriate to their needs. All barriers to education must be removed in order to make school accessible for all persons. Any school receiving public funding should not be permitted to select its students based on their likelihood of meeting testing standards, much less because of race, ethnic origin, sex, or religion.

Early Childhood Care and Education: Free, High Quality Public Preschool Programs

Early childhood care and education is intended to meet the needs of the whole child. The Federal government should provide assistance to states for the creation of free, universal, voluntary pre-kindergarten programs. They should encourage linkage of universal preschool with the resources, infrastructure and talent of the public school system. The Federal government should also ensure that states require the licensing and certification of all preschool instructors.

Primary and Secondary Education. Quality primary and secondary education are the basis on which all further learning takes place and young adults are equipped with the critical thinking skills and knowledge to make further educational and professional choice throughout their lives. These levels of education are public responsibility. The Federal government’s first responsibility is to set the bar higher than it has ever been in terms of equality of access and service, rather than lowering it to enable “market” forces to play.

Higher Education: Access, Academic Freedom and Quality. Action must be taken to improve equal access to all forms of tertiary education and reduce the cost of higher education. A key characteristic of successful individuals and societies is the quality of higher education. It is not a matter of “competition” worldwide or for scarce “jobs” within our country. It is an absolutely necessary building block for realizing human potential and constructing democratic, open and globally responsible world citizens.

Protection of education as a public good in a period of economic austerity. All concerned citizens should work to re-take and then re-build quality public education. The trends towards privatization and outsourcing of our children’s future are undermining democratic institutions at home and internationally. We need informed citizenry to begin to re-establish democratic values and institutions that respect them.

Why more and more people will #OccupyWallStreet

These are recent Tweets from Bernie Sanders @ http://twitter.com/#!/senatorsanders @SenatorSanders. Senator Bernie Sanders is the longest serving independent in congressional history. Tweets are from the senator's staff. http://sanders.senate.gov

October 2, 2011

• In 2009 Exxon Mobile made $19 billion in profits, paid no federal income taxes and took a $156 million rebate from the IRS.
• Ford's federal income tax rate was just 2.3 percent in 2009 even though it made $3 billion in profits.
• GE took a $1.1 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, even though it made over $10 billion in profits in 2009.
• The US has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country in the industrialized world.

October 1, 2011

• Bernie's audit of the Fed showed that $16 trillion was loaned to American & foreign banks & businesses. http://ow.ly/6Kv4M
• In their heydays, 40% of total profits in America went to the financial sector. Today, the top 6 financial institutions in the US have assets equal to more than 60% of our GDP.
• From '98 to '08 the financial sector spent over $5 billion in campaign contributions & lobbying to deregulate
• After adjusting for inflation, middle class families earned more income in 1998 than they do today.

September 30, 2011

• Hedge fund managers who made a billion dollars last year now pay a lower effective tax rate than many teachers.
• Between 1980 and 2005, 80% of all new income created in this country went to the top 1%.
• The percentage of income going to the top 1 percent has nearly tripled since the 1970s.
• During the Bush years, the wealthiest 400 Americans saw their wealth increase by some $400 billion and are now worth over $1.3 trillion.

September 29, 2011

• Today, the richest 400 American families own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans.
• 3 out of the 4 largest financial institutions are bigger today than before the financial crisis began.
• Today, 1 in 4 credit card holders are paying interest rates of more than 20%. That is usury.
• This year alone the financial sector spent over $170 million on lobbying & campaign contributions to gut Dodd-Frank.
• From 1998 to 2008 the financial sector spent more than $5 billion on campaign contributions & lobbying.
• Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year, even though it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

September 28, 2011

• Since 2000, nearly 12 million more Americans have slipped into poverty.
• The official unemployment rate has been 8.6% or higher for 30 consecutive months, the longest on record.
• Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, even though it made $4.4 billion in profits.
• Corporate tax revenue in 2010 was 27% smaller than 2000, even though corporate profits are up 60% over the last decade.
• A record-breaking 50 million Americans have no health insurance & 45,000 die every year because they don't have access to health care.

You get the idea. Make no mistake, the American public is absolutely fed up.

Listen to Senator Sanders amazing speech of December 2010: http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/search/label/Bernie%20Sanders 

Elizabeth Warren on class warfare, etc.

A breath of fresh air.

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You build a factory out there – good for you.

But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for...

Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea – God bless! Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

An open letter to Michael Moore

Dear Mr. Moore,

I am one of the people who will have the opportunity to see you at your UC Berkeley book event this Saturday night. It’s going to be great to hear you speak!

The other day, as I listened to your interview on NPR’s Talkof the Nation, I was happy to hear how you have considered doing a documentary about the American school system. I’d like to add my voice to the chorus of people who make that request of you everyday.

It’s clear that you are aware of some of the devastating issues facing public education, such as the demoralization of teachers. I was impressed that you knew how Finland’s success is the result of great policy decisions made years ago (the type of decisions our country continues to ignore). I was very gratified to hear that you did not like Waiting for Superman.

I believe that you are going to get more and more requests to make a documentary about public education. A lot of public school supporters are extremely upset at how public education is being forced to go down the wrong road. We want the truth to be exposed, and will keep turning to you for help.

That alarming truth is that our nation’s public education system is in the process of being dismantled and privatized in the name of “education reform.” The strategies being used are right out of the disaster capitalism playbook, with both Republicans and Democrats in support of the plan (including President Obama’s administration). A wrong-headed, glorified “business model of education” has been shoved down our throats but it’s not working. The school reform we’ve now been subjected to for years is failing!

Opportunists and predators (“edupreneurs”) are having a feeding frenzy on the stream of public school funding. School districts spend millions on consultants and useless programs, and then whittle away at teachers, librarians, and electives for kids. Privately-run, publicly-funded, inadequately-monitored charter schools get preferential treatment and the myth of their superiority is constantly parroted.   

Billionaires are using their philanthropic foundations to manipulate and direct education policy. CEOs and hedge fund managers are funding propaganda to stir up anti-teacher and pro-charter school sentiment; to them a future of charter school expansion means gold (and here). The U.S. Department of Education is bribing cash strapped states to implement its favored, but unproven reforms. Economists are funded and given permission to experiment on kids. Arrogant business-oriented school leaders and policymakers have acquired control and ignore important research. Knowledgeable educators and parents have been denied seats at the table.

Education in the public schools is now about preparing for tests. Today’s students are viewed as data points and are being overdosed with test prep, drill and kill. Art, music and even recess are disappearing in schools with a devastating effect on kids. Teachers’ livelihoods and public schools’ existence depend on the results of high stakes testing and this has led to gaming the system and cheating. Many of the most outspoken pundits, politicians and bureaucrats who are pushing this business-model of ed reform attended private schools. They also send their children to private schools with tiny classes, but have no qualms about pushing large class sizes on public school kids. More and more buckets of money are being poured into companies that profit from students testing.

The tolerance for exclusion and school segregation is increasing, and there is a continuing deafening silence from our leaders about America’s shamefully high child poverty  and incarceration rates. Teachers have been made into scapegoats for all our social ills, and the dignity of their profession is being eroded away. A miniscule group of Americans is acquiring an ever-increasing amount of wealth, and there are always justifications for why public schools shouldn’t be better funded.

It’s clearly time to ratchet up the resistance to all of these things. So I hope you’ll decide to join in the fight against what I’ve mentioned here. If you decide to make a film about these things, know that there is a whole network of very knowledgeable public school parents who will help you along.

I look forward to making your acquaintance when you sign my copy of Here Comes Trouble. I will be bringing two items for you: a copy of education historian Diane Ravitch’s important and best-selling book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, as well as a copy of The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman, a new film produced by a grassroots group of teachers and parents in New York. I think you will appreciate both items very much.

With hope for a better future,

Sharon Higgins

Oakland, CA

Co-founder of Parents Across America

PS: Are you aware that Matt Damon made a special trip to Washington, D.C. so he could speak to the teachers and public school supporters attending the Save Our Schools March this past July? My group, Parents Across America  helped to organize and co-sponsored that event.

#####

Monitoring the enrollment of Gulen charter schools in California

In 2002, the first school was opened in California, enrolling 188 students. In 2010, 14 schools were operating, enrolling a total of 2804 students.* California is the state with the third highest number of Gulen charter schools (behind Texas with 40 and Ohio with 17). See a list of current, attempted, and pending schools @  http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2011/06/gulen-charter-schools-in-california.html

Important questions to be answered: 

1. How many parents of the nearly 3000 California students enrolled in these schools know anything about the Gulen Movement and/or the controversies which surround its undisclosed agenda and activities, including its steadily growing worldwide project of opening schools? 

The four horsemen of our apocalypse?

Racism, Poverty, Militarism, Materialism. The apocalypse reference may sound dramatic, but the current condition (and trajectory) of our society is looking pretty bad.

Cornel West reflects on Dr. Martin Luther King in his piece for the New York Times today, “Dr. King Weeps From His Grave.” Excerpts with my emphasis added:*

...[during the last years of his life] King’s dream of a more democratic America had become, in his words, “a nightmare,” owing to the persistence of “racism, poverty, militarism and materialism.” He called America a “sick society.”...

MILITARISM is an imperial catastrophe that has produced a military-industrial complex and national security state and warped the country’s priorities and stature (as with the immoral drones, dropping bombs on innocent civilians) [our war history is HERE]. MATERIALISM is a spiritual catastrophe, promoted by a corporate media multiplex and a culture industry that have hardened the hearts of hard-core consumers and coarsened the consciences of would-be citizens. Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.[e.g. see HERE]

RACISM is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse. Arbitrary uses of the law — in the name of the “war” on drugs — have produced, in the legal scholar Michelle Alexander’s apt phrase, a new Jim Crow of mass incarceration [more on Alexander HERE and HERE]. And POVERTY is an economic catastrophe, inseparable from the power of greedy oligarchs and avaricious plutocrats indifferent to the misery of poor children, elderly citizens and working people...[see HERE and HERE]

...the recent budget deal is only the latest phase of a 30-year, top-down, one-sided war against the poor and working people in the name of a morally bankrupt policy of deregulating markets, lowering taxes and cutting spending for those already socially neglected and economically abandoned. Our two main political parties, each beholden to big money, offer merely alternative versions of oligarchic rule...**

Released nearly 29 years ago, Reagan’s “A Nation at Risk” launched the war against public education. Richard Rothstein wrote this in 2008 (“A Nation at Risk” Twenty-Five Years Later): 

In 1983, A Nation at Risk misidentified what is wrong with our public schools and consequently set the nation on a school reform crusade that has done more harm than good.

The diagnosis of the National Commission on Excellence in Education was flawed in three respects: First, it wrongly concluded that student achievement was declining. Second, it placed the blame on schools for national economic problems over which schools have relatively little influence. Third, it ignored the responsibility of the nation’s other social and economic institutions for learning...(READ THE REST!)

The educational “crisis” is propaganda whipped up in order to embed a specific mindset into Americans. That propaganda manipulates public concerns and supplies the justification for why our universal public education system should be dismantled and metamorphosized into one which is more restrictive and privatized. Even a report released in 1990 (Sandia Report) was suppressed to prevent the "crisis" premise from being challenged. From “Education at Risk: Fallout from a Flawed Report”(2007)

What "A Nation at Risk" claimed in 1983

• American students are never first and frequently last academically compared to students in other industrialized nations.
• American student achievement declined dramatically after Russia launched Sputnik, and hit bottom in the early 1980s.
• SAT scores fell markedly between 1960 and 1980.
• Student achievement levels in science were declining steadily.
• Business and the military were spending millions on remedial education for new hires and recruits.

What the Sandia Report revealed in 1990

• Between 1975 and 1988, average SAT scores went up or held steady for every student subgroup.
• Between 1977 and 1988, math proficiency among seventeen-year-olds improved slightly for whites, notably for minorities.
• Between 1971 and 1988, reading skills among all student subgroups held steady or improved.
• Between 1977 and 1988, in science, the number of seventeen-year-olds at or above basic competency levels stayed the same or improved slightly.
• Between 1970 and 1988, the number of twenty-two-year-old Americans with bachelor degrees increased every year; the United States led all developed nations in 1988.

In other words, there is no "educational crisis" in this country, but there is plenty of racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. The ed reform movement is a con.

* Did the NY Times change Cornel West's original title because it was too provocative? See what's embedded in the article's link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/opinion/martin-luther-king-jr-would-want-a-revolution-not-a-memorial.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

** Not terribly keyed into politics until the past several years, it took observing how President Obama has functioned (Arne Duncan and school privatizing pals, the friendliness to Goldman Sachs and others, even the choice of the purebred Bo, etc.) to demonstrate this oh-so-clearly to me. This morning I got a phone call from Obama 2012 and let the caller know why I've withdrawn my support. 

The rise of the corporate state and the “Death of the Liberal Class”

“The danger when a liberal class breaks down is that there becomes no mechanism anymore by which mounting rage and anger can be expressed within the system.” (Video below @ 28:53)

From “Death of the Liberal Class” by Chris Hedges (2010): 

Inside cover excerpt:

For decades the liberal class was a defense against the worst excesses of power. But the pillars of the liberal class—the press, universities, labor movement, culture, Democratic Party, and liberal religious institutions—have collapsed as effective counterweights to the corporate state. In its absence the needs of the poor, the working class and even the middle class, no longer have a champion. The death of the liberal class has permitted the rise of a new and terrifying political configuration.

Back cover:

Liberals conceded too much to the power elite. The tragedy of the liberal class and the institutions it controls is that it has succumbed to opportunism and finally to fear. It abrogated its moral role. It did not defy corporate abuse when it had the chance. It exiled those within its ranks who did. And the defanging of the liberal class not only removed all barriers to neofeudalism and corporate abuse but also ensured that the liberal class will, in its turn, be swept aside.

Excerpts from pp. 9-13:

The inability of the liberal class to acknowledge that corporations have wrested power from the hands of citizens, that the constitution and its guarantees of personal liberty have become irrelevant, and that the phrase consent of the governed is meaningless, has left it speaking and acting in ways that no longer correspond to reality. It has lent its voice to hollow acts of political theater, and the pretense that democratic debate and choice continue to exist.

The liberal class refuses to recognize the obvious because it does not want to lose its comfortable and often well-paid perch...

The media, the church, the university, the Democratic Party, the arts, and labor unions—the pillars of the liberal class—have been bought off with corporate money and promises of scraps tossed to them by the narrow circles of power...

The death of the liberal class means a new and terrifying political configuration. It permits the corporate state to demolish, without impediment, the last vestiges of protection put into place by the liberal class. Employees in public-sector unions—one of the last havens from the onslaught of the corporate state—are denounced for holding “Cadillac health plans” and generous retirement benefits. Teachers’ unions in California and New Jersey are attacked by corporate pundits and politicians who portray teachers as parasites thriving at taxpayer expense. The establishment of charter schools will help hasten the extinction of these unions. The increasing restrictions imposed on public-sector employees, despite their ostensible union protection, are draconian and illustrate the corporate state’s final attack on unionized workers. In turn, labor organizations (for the diminishing number of workers who still have unions) facilitate the disempowerment and impoverishment of workers...

Here's Hedges speaking about his book at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on October 17, 2010. If you have limited time, start at 20:45 where Hedges says, “And so we end up with a Democratic Party that speaks in a voice of such flagrant hypocrisy that it has killed its own credibility.”

And @ 32:50: “...what’s happened as we are propelled down this road towards an oligarchic or neofeudal society is that we are creating a permanent underclass, a permanently enraged underclass.”

Explore Hedges’s message and see if your gut picks up on the truth of it. Mine did, and I can see that the United States of America is marching toward a terrifying future. 

And as Hedges states, all resistance will be need to be local.

Arne Duncan has to go

Thousands came to DC from all across the country on behalf of our nation’s public school system. Arne Duncan has to go.

Tourists sitting atop double-decker buses hollered with thumbs up as we walked from Metro stations to the event. Arne Duncan has to go.

The near record-breaking heat was close to overwhelming, even dangerous for some, but still they came, and still they marched. Arne Duncan has to go.

Tons of drivers honked horns to show their support. Arne Duncan has to go.

Never has our public school system been so betrayed by its very own leader. Arne Duncan has to go.

People are sick of his doubletalk, his bribes and manipulation. Arne Duncan has to go.

Power to the People. Bless them with much strength and the numbers to rise up against these sick, misguided policies. Arne Duncan has to go.

Expect next year’s event to be bigger and louder and angrier. More and more people are catching on. Arne Duncan has to go.

Save Our Schools: The March to the White House on July 30, 2011.

The rebellion against Chile’s privatized education: Estimates of up to 60,000 people on the streets in Chile protesting to demand an end to privatized education. The system has placed generations of students deep in debt.*

*Read Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” (first edition published Sept. 2007) to learn how what happened in Chile is well underway here. The book’s introduction explains the privatizers' grab of New Orleans’ public schools. Things don't bode well. Arne Duncan has to go.

Please Mr. President listen to us!

Come join Parents Across America, Diane Ravitch, Matt Damon and many others in the Save Our Schools rally and march to the White House on Saturday, July 30, 2011.

More information here.   President Obama, listen to us!

Song composed by Linda Gower for the Save our Schools March in DC.

The U.S.A., our war eras, and who we are.

This remarkable table, reflecting our nation's priorities, was created from war era dates defined by the American Legion. The American Legion is “...the nation’s largest veterans service organization..."

Eligibility Requirements for American Legion Membership

Military members currently on active duty, who are serving the United States honorably, anywhere in the world, or have served honorably during any of the following eligible war eras, are invited to be members of The American Legion.

• April 6, 1917 to Nov. 11, 1918 (World War I)
• Dec. 7, 1941 to Dec. 31, 1946 (World War II)
• June 25, 1950 to Jan. 31, 1955 (Korean War)
• Feb. 28, 1961 to May 7, 1975 (Vietnam War)
• Aug. 24, 1982 to July 31, 1984 (Lebanon / Grenada)
• Dec. 20, 1989 to Jan. 31, 1990 (Panama)
• Aug. 2, 1990 to today (Gulf War / War On Terrorism)

The table covers 1917 to 2011 (the past 85 years). The last declared war was World War II.


Red cells indicate wars. Blue cells indicate peacetime.

Clink on the image for a clearer view. Table created by the Perimeter Primate.

Recipe 4 World Peace: Everybody learn Turkish!

This is what the Gulenists believe deep down in their hearts. It is also why Turkish language and culture are always taught in the Gulen charter schools, why students are given subsidized, Gulenist-guided trips to Turkey, and why student participation in regional Turkish Olympiads is so strongly promoted.

However, you will be extremely hard pressed to find any reference to all of this Turkish instruction in any of their charter school applications. But that shouldn't matter! Everyone just needs to thank Fethullah Gulen for creating such a wonderful recipe for world peace!

Here's a new article about the Turkish Olympiads appearing in Zaman, a Gulenist-operated Turkish newspaper. Gulen is glorified four times.

“Turkish becomes language of peace thanks to Olympiads.” Sunday’s Zaman 26 June 2011* 

When the 1st International Turkish Language Olympiads were launched in 2003 by Dilset, a publishing house, the goal was to reward students who excel in learning Turkish and to courage others.

Back then, 62 students from 17 countries took part in the event. Since 2006 the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER), a civil society organization, has undertaken the job of holding the Olympiads. Currently, the event continues in its ninth edition across Turkey with a boost in the number of participating nations and students. One thousand students representing 130 countries are taking part in the Olympiads this year...

According to Tuncay Öztürk, the deputy chairman of TÜRKÇEDER and general secretary of the International Turkish Language Olympiads, the motive behind the event is to bring the youth of the world together for peace with an eventual goal of promoting world peace.

Öztürk says the language of Turkish serves peace in the Olympiads. “Helping to build dialogue [DIALOGUE IS A GULENIST BUZZ WORD] bridges between the countries of the world is our goal. We thought it could be well achieved via Turkish. By building these bridges, we know them, and they know us,” he told Sunday’s Zaman.

In general, the Olympiads can be seen as the reflection of “beautiful services,” including the Turkish schools opened by Turks, inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, around the world, Öztürk noted. “The Olympiads are part of efforts at dialogue and the schools’ efforts to promote love and peace in the world,” he added.

Students who represent their countries are selected by local administrators. If the number of Olympiad contenders is high in a country, the students have to take part in competitions, and those coming in first earn a berth in the Turkey competition. After they arrive in the country, the students face another competition, this time to take part in the top contests, the song and poetry finals. A student from Tajikistan came first in the song contest and a student from Georgia won the poetry contest on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively...

...The Olympiads continue with their shows, and they will run through the closing ceremony on June 30 in İstanbul.

“We started with 17 countries, now we have reached 130. There is a big demand [to host Olympiad shows] in Turkey. There is also demand from the world [to join the Olympiads]. The halls are not big enough to meet the demand in İstanbul and Ankara. We cannot meet the demand for invitations. Both the content and the expenses of the event get bigger every year,” Öztürk explained.

Olympiads unite Turkey as well

Not only have the children of the world but Turkey also has been gathering under the umbrella of the Turkish Olympiads. Regardless of their worldviews, prominent artists, academics, journalists and public figures gathered at the Turkish Olympiads, a Gülen-inspired event. Among the guests and jury members at the song and poetry contests were producer Sinan Çetin, organizer Ahmet San, dancer Tan Sağtürk, producer Elif Dağdeviren and poets Yavuz Bülent Bakiler and Hilmi Yavuz. Meeting at the contests, they all thanked the organizers of the Olympiads and expressed their support.

“The Olympiads turned into an event that is loved by everybody from every age,” Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı said in his article. “Maybe the value of the event is not perceived exactly, but future generations will understand it. As they [who do not understand the value of the Olympiads] see youths who are familiar with Turkish folkloric dance, literature and cuisine from around the world, they will appreciate it,” he added....

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These are just a few of the performances by American charter school students who competed in 2011 at various U.S. regional Turkish Olympiads. The winners of these preliminaries are very likely to be in Turkey attending the Gulenist pageant described in the article above. These U.S. charter schools exist to serve the goals of this foreign, cult-like religious movement.

A  video of a Southeast USA preliminary. Note how Southern is spelled “Southearn.’ But I suppose it doesn’t matter since the English language holds little importance in the Gulenists’ dream of a gloriously pan-Turkic world.

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Children from Fulton Science Academy in Georgia competing at the Atlanta 2011 Turkish Olympiad Southeastern US sponsored by the Gulenist Istanbul Center.

More about this school’s Gulen movement connections HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

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Child from Triad Math and Science Academy in North Carolina competing at the 2011 Turkish Olympiad Washington DC Finals sponsored by the Gulenist American Turkish Friendship Association.

More about this school's Gulen movement connections HERE.

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Children from School of Science and Technology in Texas competing at the 2011 Turkish Language Olympiad Southwest America sponsored by the Gulenist Raindrop Turkish House.

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Child from Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology in New Jersey competing at the 2011 Turkish Olympiad New York sponsored by the Turkish Cultural Center New York.

More about this school’s Gulen movement connections HERE and HERE. 

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Updates:

Forget the idea behind Esperanto. In the Gulenist mindset, it’s Turkish all the way.

“New slogan for Turkish Olympiads: One language, 7 billion people.” Zaman Amerika, 2/19/2011

The International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER), which organizes a “Turkish language bayram” in Turkey every year, is busy making preparations for this year’s International Turkish Language Olympiads.

The date for the ninth Olympiads has been confirmed, and three new competition categories have been opened. While 750 students from 120 countries participated in the Olympiads last year, 1,000 finalists from 130 countries will participate this year. Generally held between the end of May and the beginning of June, the event will fall on June 15-30 this year, due to the general elections on June 12.

Last year’s slogan, “We are speaking the same language,” will be replaced with “One language, 7 billion people,” signifying the world uniting under one common language, while this year’s competitions will be held in Ankara, İstanbul, Konya and Bursa. Moreover, large-scale regional events will be organized in nearly 20 cities throughout Turkey. Turkey’s Kızılcahamam Asya Thermal Complex will again host the Turkish-speaking children of the world for the duration of their two-week stay.

Categories added to the Olympiads this year include picture and sound as well as an essay competition for foreign students studying in Turkey, raising the number of categories to 20. The theme for the picture competition will be “respecting sacred values.”

The difference between the new sound category and the singing competition is language. The songs in the singing competition will be in Turkish, while those in the sound category will be sung in students’ native tongues.

10,000 students prepare each year

Noting that preparations for the Olympiads take a year worldwide, Secretary-General of the International Turkish Language Olympiads Tuncay Öztürk said that “approximately 10,000 students train for the Turkish Olympiads -- which attract increasing attention and recognition each year -- all learning Turkish under the supervision of teachers.”

“Students, feeling the excitement of the Olympiads well before they reach Turkey, participate in closely contested qualifying rounds in order to make the finals,” he said. “Each student can only participate in the Olympiads once. Consequently, thousands of different students learn Turkish every year and gain a deeper understanding of our culture. A large number of participants watch these national finals from Turkey.”

The Turkish Olympiads in Turkey are the finals. By organizing their own national competitions, each country selects its finalists and sends them to Turkey. Students who competed in Olympiads in the past cannot participate a second time. The website www.turkceolimpiyatlari.org provides detailed information about the Olympiads.

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From another of the many Zaman-published articles about the event: “Turkish Olympiads gets full score from the Turkish capital.” Sunday's Zaman 26 June 2011 (emphasis added)*

... State Minister Egemen Bağış stated: “I thank you all for your performances. We are touched by this every year and sometimes our eyes are filled with tears of joy. The Turkish language you are learning is spoken by 200 million people around the world. I congratulate your teachers, who moved thousands of kilometers away from their homes to teach you this language.”...

Felicity Part (SP) leader Mustafa Kamalak, spoke to the participants, saying: “These are the things that the government does not have a hand in. When I see these children, I think that three figures should be understood better today: Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, Necmettin Erbakan and Fethullah Gülen. For this reason universities should be established in the names of these people.”...

The Gulen movement, charter schools, Turkey’s ruling party, the Muslim Brotherhood, The Nation, and American Thinker.

I’ll leave the sorting-it-all-out up to you. As you read this entry, just know that:

#1: The Gulen movement is operating 120 U.S. charter schools (with more opening soon), as well as a whole host of what-they-present-as “Turkish cultural” and “interfaith dialog” organizations. One of the Gulen movement’s favorite activities has been to lobby politicians and other community leaders. Members of the Gulen movement lavish gifts, dinners, and awards on people whom they've targeted, including their charter school families. One of the biggest propaganda programs they sponsor for people around the world are ongoing free, or greatly subsidized (by members of the movement), Gulenist-guided trips to Turkey. Texas politicians are just now starting to question all these trips, but that doesn't mean they have acquired much insight about the Gulen movement (see the article in the American-Statesman: “Some lawmakers have second thoughts about Turkey trips.” 19 June 2011).

#2: The AKP became the ruling party in Turkey because it is Gulen movement-backed.

#3: SourceWatch has described Stratfor as "pro-corporate." American Thinker has been described as "the right wing's echo chamber." The Nation has been described as "left-leaning."

Sorting out the Gulen movement, Turkey’s ruling party, and the Muslim Brotherhood

> “Turkey's Elections and Strained U.S.Relations.” Stratfor’s Geopolitical Weekly 14 Jun 2011 

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won parliamentary elections June 12, which means it will remain in power for a third term. The popular vote, divided among a number of parties, made the AKP the most popular party by far, although nearly half of the electorate voted for other parties, mainly the opposition and largely secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP)…

…since Turkey is a democracy, the rhetoric is usually heated and accusations often fly, ranging from imminent military coups to attempts to impose a religious dictatorship…

…the AKP has clearly taken Turkey in new directions in both domestic and foreign policy. In domestic policy, the direction is obvious. While the CHP has tried to vigorously contain religion within the private sphere, the AKP has sought to recognize Turkey’s Islamic culture and has sought a degree of integration with the political structure…

The rise of the AKP and its domestic agenda has more than just domestic consequences. Since 2001, the United States has been fighting radical Islamists, and the fear of radical Islamism goes beyond the United States to Europe and other countries. In many ways, Turkey is both the most prosperous and most militarily powerful of any Muslim country. The idea that the AKP agenda is radically Islamist and that Turkey is moving toward radical Islamism generates anxieties and hostilities in the international system…

...it is useful to consider Turkey in a broader geopolitical context. It sits astride one of the most important waterways in the world, the Bosporus, connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean…

From the American point of view, a close U.S.-Turkish relationship came to be considered normal. But the end of the Cold War redefined many relationships, and in many cases, neither party was aware of the redefinition for quite some time. The foundation of the U.S.-Turkish alliance rested on the existence of a common enemy, the Soviets…

The break point came in early 2003 with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which came after the AKP election victory in late 2002. The United States wanted to send a division into northern Iraq from southern Turkey, and the Turks blocked the move...

But for the United States, the decision on Iraq became a defining moment, when the United States realized that it could not take Turkish support for granted. The Turks, on the other hand, decided that the United States was taking actions that were not in their best interests. The relationship was not broken, but it did become strained...

Thus, the Turks, not wanting to participate in the Iraq war, created a split with the United States, and the European rejection of Turkish membership in the European Union has generated a split with Europe...

…The foundation of Turkey’s relationship with Israel, for example, had more to do with hostility toward pro-Soviet Arab governments than anything else. Those governments are gone and the secular foundation of Turkey has shifted. The same is true with the United States and Europe. None of them wants Turkey to shift, but given the end of the Cold War and the rise of Islamist forces, such a shift is inevitable, and what has occurred thus far seems relatively mild considering where the shift has gone in other countries. But more important, the foundation of alliances has disappeared and neither side can find a new, firm footing…

Read “Islam, Secularism and the Battlefor Turkey’s Future,” a 18-page special report by Stratfor (Aug. 23, 2010) to learn more about Turkey and the Gulen movement. A section entitled “The Turkish Islamist Movement” starting on page four explains the movement’s ascension to power and the role of its global network of schools. 

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> “The Muslim Brotherhood and Weiner.” American Thinker 19 Jun 2011 

Far more disturbing than the salacious details of Weiner's dalliances is the fact that apparently his mother-in-law is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Furthermore, Huma Abedin's brother, Hassan, "is listed as a fellow and partner with a number of Muslim Brotherhood members."... 

How is it that the Western media, with its hourly analyses of Weiner, missed this salient point, yet Arab news sources revealed this connection?...

Which should now raise even greater concerns since Huma Abedin-Weiner is the deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State...

Couple this with the Clinton family playing a key role in promoting Fethullah Gulen who has worked assiduously to overthrow Turkey's secular government.  Gulen, who currently resides in Pennsylvania, has told his followers that in order for "worldwide Islamic domination to succeed, every method and path is acceptable, including lying to people."

In March of this year, the FBI was investigating the more than 120 charter schools in the United States that are linked to Gulen's movement.  These schools, funded with millions of taxpayer dollars, promote Gulen's worldview that is both anti-Israel and anti-America.  In fact, in 2010 it was reported that Bill Gates had given almost 11 million dollars to the Cosmos Foundation, which is a Gulen enterprise.

Moreover, one needs to question why Huma Abedin, a member of a family of devout Muslims, would ever marry a Jewish Congressman -- in a ceremony officiated by Bill Clinton.  Sharia law clearly forbids Muslims from marrying non-believers, so what does this portend?

Furthermore, when Huma Abedin accompanied Hillary Clinton to the Dar El-Hekma women's college in Saudi Arabia, where Huma's mother is co-founder and vice dean, it was reported that "Hillary explained that Huma holds an important and sensitive position in her office."  Where was the scrutiny?

Why are so many at the highest levels of American government ignoring the methodology of Islamists like Gulen, who has declared that the best way to seize power is to lie in wait "with the patience of a spider" in order to "wait for people to get caught in the web"?  Is Clinton so naïve?...

Learn more about the Gulen movement / Bill & Hillary Clinton connection at "Why Bill Clinton mentioned Gulen at the Turkish Cultural Center's dinner in September 2008."

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>  “Muslim Brotherhood Wants 'Complete Control' in Egypt.” The Nation 20 Jun 2011

Here’s a scary quote in today’s New York Times from Mehdi Akef, a former top official of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, one of that group’s more conservative leaders, on the political strategy of the Brotherhood-founded Freedom and Justice Party:

“Our preliminary platform will be shown through the Freedom and Justice Party. But our full platform will not be disclosed until we are in complete control and take the presidency as well.”

There are lots of Pollyanna when it comes to the Muslim Brotherhood, those who believe that the organization is a benign, pro-democratic group that wants to model Egypt on the Turkey of Prime Minister Erdogan, whose Islamist AKP runs that country. Leave aside, for a moment, whether Erdogan’s reactionary, populist yet pro-business AKP, which has gone a long way toward destroying Turkey’s secular, nationalist tradition, is a good model for Egypt. In Egypt itself, the Brotherhood is a reactionary force and dangerously so—not for the United States, and not because it is anti-Israel, but because it embodies the worst, religious fundamentalist tendencies of the Egyptian people...

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By the way, an assortment of people came to Fethullah Gulen’s rescue after he was denied a Green Card by the Department of Homeland Security by writing letters of support saying he was an “extraordinary educator.” Of course, the DHS denial was overturned and Gulen has been living a self-exiled-from-Turkey life on a secluded compound in Pennsylvania ever since.

I will continue to ask, why has the U.S. government allowed American schoolchildren to be sucked into all of this?