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SAYLORSBURG, Pa. -- Fetullah Gülen has been called the world's top public intellectual and the face of moderate Islam. He has held court with Pope John Paul II and received praise from former President Bill Clinton. "You're contributing to the promotion of the ideals of tolerance and interfaith dialogue inspired by Fetullah Gülen and his transnational social movement," Clinton told audience members during a video address at the World Rumi Forum in 2010. Yet others have branded Gülen a wolf in sheep's clothing and a modern day Ayatollah Khomeini. CBN News recently took a closer look at the the life...

Entering my freshman year at Georgetown University, I should have felt as if I’d made it. The students I once put on a pedestal, kids who were fortunate enough to attend some of the nation’s top private and public schools, were now my classmates. Having come from D.C. public charter schools, I worked extremely hard to get here. But after arriving on campus before the school year, with a full scholarship, I quickly felt unprepared and outmatched — and it’s taken an entire year of playing catch-up in the classroom to feel like I belong. I know that ultimately I’m...

The charter school movement was presented to the American people as a way to have more parental control over public school education. Charter schools are public schools financed by local taxpayers and federal grants. Charter schools are able to hire and fire teachers, administrators and staff and avoid control by education department bureaucrats and the teachers unions. No doubt there are some good charter schools, but loose controls have allowed a very different kind of school to emerge. Charter schools have opened up a path for foreigners to run schools at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers, without much...

Campaigning in Idaho on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested that he is opposed to a public school system overseen by the government. "We didn't have government-run schools for a long time in this country, for the majority of the time in this country," he said. "We had private education. We had local education. Parents actually controlled the education of their children. What a great idea that is." Santorum's campaign did not respond to multiple requests for an explanation of whether he was calling for an end to public schooling as it now exists. But the former Pennsylvania senator...

School choice is changing the face of education in the United States in 2012. In spite of the increasing cost of public school education, parents are no longer satisfied that it is preparing their children for the competitive world of the 21st century. They are turning to home schooling or charter schools that meet their expectations.

Like many charter public schools in Michigan, South Arbor Charter Academy must hold a lottery to distribute its limited classroom slots among an overwhelming number of applicants. In this video, the parents of some 556 student-hopefuls vie for just 26 slots at this achievement - and values - focused school.

A Detroit Free Press editorial opposing legislation that would remove arbitrary caps on the number of charter public schools contains a series of misleading, inaccurate and intemperate statements. The newspaper’s opening argument exemplifies the latter: “[T]he experiment [the Legislature] is trying to inflict on children and their parents is ill-conceived and dangerous.” No charter public school has ever “inflicted” anything on parents or children, for a very basic reason: The only children who attend charters are those whose parents have voluntarily and conscientiously chosen to send them there. In fact, the Legislature cannot itself increase the number of charters —...

Students at the west campus of Urban Prep Academy say they’re being targeted, chased and harassed by gangbangers as they walk to and from school. Leaders of the college preparatory school and parents of students met Thursday night to discuss what can be done about the ongoing problem.

Charter School Accused of Becoming Adult Club at NightBy Kathleen McGrory, The Miami Herald 6:15 a.m. EDT, September 2, 2011 MIAMI-DADE COUNTY— By day, the Balare Language Academy is an A-rated charter school, home to children in kindergarten through middle school. But when the kids are tucked into bed, Balare apparently becomes a playground of a different kind. Party fliers, printed and on the Web, indicate that the campus at 10875 Quail Roost Dr. has been hosting raunchy, booze-soaked bashes into the wee hours. One flier for an upcoming party features a voluptuous, scantily clad woman posing with champagne bottles....

The "Push It To Da Limit: The Flossin Edition" late-night party is still scheduled to go off Saturday night — but it won't be at a south Miami-Dade charter school, as previously advertised. Miami-Dade School District officials on Friday were still trying to determine whether the Balere Language Academy — a charter school already facing financial free-fall and increased school district scrutiny — has also been doubling as an after-hours nightclub.

He left home at 11 after a rough childhood, spending time on the streets, yet managed to finish both high school and college. He later went on to work as a Pepsi-Cola truck driver, at a meat-packing plant and as a short-order cook. YouTube

"...On the fraught issue of school choice, his foundation has been a strong advocate of charter schools, and Mr. Gates is particularly fond of the KIPP charter network and its focus on serving inner-city neighborhoods. "Whenever you get depressed about giving money in this area," he volunteers, "you can spend a day in a KIPP school and know that they are spending less money than the dropout factory down the road." Mr. Gates is less enamored of school vouchers. "Some in the Walton family"—of Wal-Mart fame—"have been very big on vouchers," he begins. "And honestly, if we thought there would...

Inci Akpinar, the vice president of a company called Atlas Texas Construction & Trading, sat down with an official from the Louisiana Department of Education a little more than a year ago and made him an offer. As the state official, Folwell Dunbar, recalled in a memo to department colleagues, Akpinar flattered him with "a number of compliments" before getting to the point: "I have twenty-five thousand dollars to fix this problem: twenty thousand for you and five for me." At the time, Dunbar was investigating numerous complaints against Abramson Science & Technology Charter School in eastern New Orleans, which...

Paul Castro had a promising career in the Houston Independent School District. At 29, he landed his first principal job.... But Castro made an abrupt exit last summer. He got a promotion at KIPP, Houston's fast-growing charter school chain. In a recent interview, Castro said he felt frustrated because he thought Superintendent Terry Grier was reining in his power as a principal. ..."There's no question, if they (KIPP) could grow their own, they wouldn't be recruiting from us," Grier said. Similar rivalries are playing out in other hotbeds for charter schools. In Ohio, KIPP swiped a young principal from another...

A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.- Bertrand de Jouvenel des Ursins, usually known only as Bertrand de Jouvenel (31 October 1903, Paris – 1 March 1987) was a French philosopher, political economist, and futurist. G u l a g B o u n d Video, "Gov. Rick Perry’s amazing speech to RLC 2011" at TheRightScoop.com James Richard "Rick" Perry assumed the governorship of Texas in 2000 when he took over from George W. Bush, who resigned to take the oath of office of President. He holds all records for Texas gubernatorial tenure. Perry has...

Minority parents in New York have a message for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT): you are hurting our children. In New York Monday, charter school parents staged another of several rallies to voice opposition to a lawsuit brought by the UFT and NAACP against the New York City Department of Education. If the organizations are successful with their suit, it would prevent enrollment or re-enrollment in 17 charter schools and stop the closure of 22 public schools. The UFT and NAACP’s decision to sue has roiled inner city...

TRENTON — Capital Preparatory Charter High School has surrendered its charter and is under investigation for financial mismanagement and a range of violations by the New Jersey State Police, a state Department of Education spokesman said yesterday. The Grand Street school had been placed on two consecutive 90-day probationary periods before it gave up its charter May 2. It will close at the end of the school year. Because Capital Prep chose to surrender its charter rather than have it revoked, it cannot appeal, DOE spokesman Alan Guenther said. In addition to the financial problems, visits to the 329-student school...

Last week we reported how charter schools are less racially diverse than traditional public schools. This return to the dark days of our segregated past supposedly should be of concern to us even if it is not to the thousands of black parents who willingly enroll their children in the charter schools. That would make the children victims of racism perpetrated by their parents, an interesting new twist on an old outrage. Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run. They compete for students with public schools. Teachers' unions hate them because they take jobs from unionized teachers. There are...

Our school children are facing Muslim indoctrination with “The 99"; project which is set to air in January with a 13 episode series on the Discovery Channel for Kids. President Obama praised this media event for capturing young imaginations by “teaching tolerance for Islam” at his recent Washington, D.C. Presidential Summit speech. This new series is using animated adventure heroes to depict the 99 attributes of Allah in what the London Times is saying “the show’s mission is to instill old fashioned Islamic values” into our Christian children. Kathy Bright of the Bright Media network has developed The Shield Bearer...

Allie Winegar Duzett, Last week, the United States Department of Education awarded $50,000,000 to the Charter School Grant Program, to “replicate and expand” high-achieving public charter schools. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, over the next five years the grants are expected to serve 76,000 students, in 127 new and 31 expanded charter schools. In the past, grants of this nature were only given to start-up public charter schools—so public charter schools that were already set up and functioning were denied funding. The support for public charter schools is indeed heartening—and not limited only to the federal...

It’s the film the teachers unions don’t want you to see. The revelatory documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” opened Friday to parents’ cheers — and union howls. The film follows five families trying desperately to escape failing traditional public schools in favor of charter schools — and it profiles education reformers rebuilding a national school system that’s in ruins. The unions panned the flick, naturally: It exposes how they drag kids down into the swamp, spotlighting how bad teachers are passed from school to school and how all-but-automatic tenure allows even the worst teachers to stay on the job. But...

It's the movement that could revolutionize America's schools. •The shocking state of our schools •Meet the children from the film *snip* ~ ~ ~ School Choice: What Are Your Options? ### School choice options available to parents have increased dramatically in recent years. There's a growing national sentiment that promoting competition in public education may spur schools to improve and that parents who invest energy in choosing a school will continue to be involved in their child's education. How much choice do you have? It depends. The amount of choice varies from one school district to another and varies from...

One of the most compelling conservative books I have had the fortune to read is “Crazy Like A Fox” One Principal’s Triumph in the Inner City, by Dr. Ben Chavis and Carey Blakely. Ironically it was not written as a “conservative” book but conservative principles naturally erupted throughout this memoir of a brave educator that spun trash into gold. I found myself cheering as this politically incorrect America Indian pioneer took over the American Indian Charter Public School in Oakland, California, that was failing in every measurable aspect, a cesspool of illiteracy, and single-handedly brought it to the fifth ranked...

Ever wonder why the teachers unions hate charter schools so much? Here's one reason. State test scores this week showed 100 percent of eighth-graders in the Harlem Village Academies achieved proficiency in science and social studies. By contrast, in Harlem's traditional public schools, only 35 percent of eighth-graders made the grade in science, and 22 percent in social studies. This continues a trend: New York charters -- public schools that operate free of union work rules and bureaucratic mandates -- are wildly outperforming their traditional counterparts in student test scores, graduation rates, college acceptances and other measures.

<p>'What's funny," says Madeleine Sackler, "is that I'm not really a political person." Yet the petite 27-year-old is the force behind "The Lottery"—an explosive new documentary about the battle over the future of public education opening nationwide this Tuesday.</p> <p>In the spring of 2008, Ms. Sackler, then a freelance film editor, caught a segment on the local news about New York's biggest lottery. It wasn't the Powerball. It was a chance for 475 lucky kids to get into one of the city's best charter schools (publicly funded schools that aren't subject to union rules).</p>

Along with its usual claims that cuts will destroy schools, the Web site of the United Federation of Teachers marks the union's 50th anniversary by paying strange homage to a firebrand founder, Albert Shanker. It does so by saying that, "In a movie, Woody Allen once described Albert Shanker as a mad bomber who destroys the world." The union apparently sees this lone sentence as high praise for its late boss. The movie was "Sleeper," a 1973 hit where Allen, director and star, wakes 200 years in the future. Amid gags about dehumanizing machinery -- remember the Orgasmatron? -- Allen...

The future of charter schools in New York hangs on negotiations between City Hall and teachers union President Michael Mulgrew. This is perverse. The United Federation of Teachers is fighting to limit the growth of charters even as the state's application for as much as $700 million in federal Race to the Top money demands letting the number of schools expand. Mulgrew's strategy has been to give the nod to upping the charter cap while trying to make it all but impossible for a sponsor to open one of these privately run, publicly funded academies. For example, by creating barriers...

On Capitol Hill, all eyes have been focused on the House, as efforts to pass healthcare reform have grown increasingly dramatic. But a less-watched debate began in the Senate Tuesday, which offered a second chance for the Washington, D.C. private school voucher program that Congress phased out last year. The effort, however, was quickly squashed by a vote Tuesday night, with most Democrats voting against it along with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised in January that he would allow debate about the program on the Senate floor. And on Tuesday, the Senate began considering...

Memo to Republican Leaders: Republicans should exploit the HUGE advantage they have in education. Everybody knows, deep-down, that it's liberals who are screwing up the schools. Let's start shouting this from the rooftops! Every day! The linked article, published almost a year ago, gives all the basic points. Please pass this along to candidates, campaign managers, etc. (I have 100+ articles on the web explaining how the Education Establishment is dumbing down the country. I can usually explain what various policies actually achieve, versus what is promised.)

On the final day of the National Education Association’s convention last summer, its outgoing general counsel, Bob Chanin, gave a speech for the ages. After sharing fond recollections of his 41 years as the NEA’s top lawyer, he switched gears and started lobbing grenades at “conservative and right-wing bastards,” including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. The NEA and its affiliates, by contrast, were “the nation’s leading advocates for public education and the type of liberal social and economic agenda that these groups find objectionable.” Chanin’s glowing portrait of the NEA was wildly wrong, of course, but so...

Remember that the schools in New Orleans were a tragedy long before Katrina. ...In the 1970s, Mickey Landry and his wife both taught in New Orleans. “We used to come home and joke that the best thing that could happen to the Orleans Parish school system would be for someone to blow it up and start all over again.” Frustrated, Landry left New Orleans, but stayed in education, eventually running a prestigious private school in Colorado. Landry was lured back to post-Katrina New Orleans by the opportunity to run a school without the bureaucratic constraints of the old Orleans Parish...

For the second time in six months, a promi nent researcher has put New York City's public charter schools under a microscope and found that, overall, they're outperforming the city's traditional public schools.

December 2, 2009School Choice and the Common Good of All Children by Kevin E. Schmiesing Ph.D. The United States justifiably celebrates its pluralism. The mandate to find unity in diversity—e pluribus unum—is predicated not on the premise that all peculiarities of creed or color must be washed away; instead, it insists that all such cultural and social differences must be respected. Part and parcel of this freedom is the right of parents to educate their children as they see fit. Like all rights, this one carries with it a duty: to prepare the child adequately for participation in society by...

What began as an experiment in 1992 has become 5,043 charter schools in 39 states and the District of Columbia, providing nearly 2 million American families with opportunity not available in the public school system. Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform, said parent demand fueled the rise. "No other form of school choice has provided such a dramatic impact on the lives of so many students," she said, "and no other reform has had the teeth to push conventional public schools to be better like charters have."

We’re All Right-Wing Bastards Now—that is, if the NEA’s logic is to be believed. 20 November 2009 On the last day of the National Education Association’s convention this summer, its outgoing general counsel, Bob Chanin, gave a speech for the ages. After sharing fond recollections of his 41 years as the NEA’s top lawyer, he switched gears and started lobbing grenades at “conservative and right-wing bastards,” including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. The NEA and its affiliates, by contrast, were “the nation’s leading advocates for public education and the type of liberal social and economic agenda that...

Kevin Chavous is an African American and former Democratic city council member from Washington, D.C. He says he’s an Obama supporter, but he is distinctly unhappy with the president. Elections may have consequences, but no one expected that the White House would be so brazenly petty as to allow poor minority children in the nation’s worst school district to become the victims of political score-settling. That’s exactly what happened when the Obama administration killed off the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program several months ago. Of course, if the White House thought that it could pay off the powerful teachers’ unions, and...

A Charter for Achievement Allie Winegar Duzett, October 20, 2009 While bureaucrats everywhere puzzle over how to make public school test scores look good, one charter school principal has figured out how to make them go up without score keeping gimmicks. Ben Chavis is a unique man with an uncommon background: he grew up as a sharecropper on a Native American reservation in North Carolina, and today he leads and operates an impressive charter school—for fun. Every year, Chavis donates his salary back to the school, and uses the money to take the oldest class of children to visit Washington,...

The Patrick administration urged approval of a controversial Gloucester charter school earlier this year, over the fierce objections of city residents and the advice of state specialists, based not on its merits but because it would further the governor’s political agenda, according to a recently published e-mail.

Another respected poll is out that shows the American public overwhelmingly favors school reforms opposed by the union that is misnamed the National Education Association. On two issues in particular, the public is far ahead of the NEA. The annual poll, released late last month by Phi Delta Kappa International, a professional association for educators, in conjunction with Gallup, demonstrated strong majority support for charter schools and merit-pay systems for teachers. But the power-hungry union consistently puts roadblocks or stultifying restrictions on these reforms. The poll found that nearly two out of three Americans favor charter schools. The NEA, however,...

A lawsuit is challenging Idaho officials who contend the state constitution forbids use of the Bible in a charter school opening this fall. The Alliance Defense Fund has filed an action against the Idaho Public Charter School Commission on behalf of Nampa Classical Academy, which, the ADF reports, was threatened with the revocation of its charter if it uses the Bible or any other religious documents or text as part of its curriculum resources. "The Bible shouldn't be singled out for censorship in public schools, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that it is entirely constitutional for...

Villaraigosa joins rally in support of schools resolution August 25, 2009 |  2:12 pm Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa added his voice to a rally in support of a plan to give charter schools access to 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Villaraigosa spoke outside district headquarters before a crowd of at least 2,000 charter-school parents and supporters who drove or were bused in for the occasion. Most wore light blue shirts emblazoned with the slogan: “My Child, My Choice.”“We’re here today to stand up for our children,” Villaraigosa...

August 17, 2009 Dear xxxxx: The Caps Hurt Kids rally is at the Bell Tower in Richmond's Capitol Square (9th and Franklin Street) at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Certain rules do apply to events at the Capitol: No parades are allowed on Capitol Square (We'll be playing music, but resist the temptation to form a Conga Line). No stick-holding placards will be permitted (bring a sign, but no stake). No food may be served. No parking will be available on Capitol Square. No signs or other items are permitted to be placed on the Capitol Square fence. Please remember these...

A new charter school planning to open this fall in Idaho has come under fire since it publicly announced one of the textbooks students will be using is the Bible. Unlike a typical public school, the Nampa Classical Academy has the freedom under Idaho's Public Charter School Commission to develop its own curriculum. Students will be taught, for example, Latin and Western civilization, but it's the school's choice to use the Bible as a historical and literary text that has ignited a public firestorm. At a meeting of the Public Charter School Commission, parents stood and argued for and against...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is set to announce on Friday a competition for $4 billion in federal grants to improve academic achievement in U.S. schools, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. Obama wants states to use funds from the competition, dubbed the "Race to the Top," to ease limits on so-called charter schools, link teacher pay to student achievement and move toward common U.S. academic standards, the Post said. Charter schools receive public funding but generally are exempt from some state or local rules and regulations. They are operated as an alternative to traditional public schools.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Kevin O’Shea, 50, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud, theft from a federally funded program, and filing a false tax return, stemming from his role in defrauding the Philadelphia Academy Charter School (“PACS”), announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy. O’Shea admitted to stealing between $400,000 and $1 million from PACS by: (1) using approximately $710,000 in PACS’ funds to purchase a building in the name of his purported non-profit business; (2) demanding kickbacks from PACS vendors; (3) submitting for reimbursement at least $40,000 in fraudulent invoices for personal meals, entertainment, home improvements, and gas and telephone...

During its late conference held during the Independence Day holiday weekend, the National Education Association took up a series of new resolutions that targeted charter schools. The union was looking for ways to reign in the success of charter schools to make their own woeful attempts at education in the public schools look better. The union was also looking for ways to cash in on charter school's success as well as for a way to get more union oversight into them. But, here is the thing: when they work, charter schools work because they have less union meddling involved in...

Some D.C. public charter schools continue selective admissions practices that discourage special-needs students from enrolling, and students citywide with possible disabilities still face delays in special education evaluations, a federal court monitor said this week. "Charter schools . . . generally have not enrolled students with significant disabilities who required extensive hours of special services or education," the monitor, Amy Totenberg, wrote in a report prepared for a court hearing yesterday.

As the Obama administration pushes for more charter schools, a teachers' union is pushing for a bigger role in them. It's a new development for the charter school movement, a small but growing — and controversial — effort to create new, more autonomous public schools, usually in cities where traditional schools have failed. On Tuesday in New York, the United Federation of Teachers expects to formalize a contract with teachers at Green Dot New York Charter School in the Bronx, a high school run by Green Dot, a nonprofit group that operates charter schools. Ten other New York charter schools...

Oakland, California's American Indian Public Charter Schools are quickly gaining a reputation. Well, two reputations, actually. One reputation is for being aggressively anti-union, and weeding out teachers who try to peddle New-Agey education philosophies. The other reputation is for delivering the best education in California... ranking in the top 4 in the state, and the only top California school serving inner-city kids

Spitting in the eye of mainstream education Dave Getzschman Students sit in detention at American Indian Public Charter school in Oakland for offenses ranging from getting up during class or skipping a problem on a homework assignment. Students who misbehave in the slightest must stay an hour after school; if they misbehave again in the same week, they get more detention and four hours of Saturday detention. Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test -- and produce some of the state's top scores. By Mitchell Landsberg May 30, 2009 Reporting from Oakland --...