Turkey's Fight against U.S. Charters

Autor/in	Wecker, Menachem
Titel	Turkey's Fight against U.S. Charters
Quelle	In: Education Next, 19 (2019) 2, S.30-36 (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1539-9664
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Charter Schools; Public Schools; Politics of Education; Religion; Lobbying; Parent Attitudes; Conflict; Turkey; United States; Texas; California (Los Angeles); California (Anaheim) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Charter school; Charter-Schule; Public school; Öffentliche Schule; Educational policy; Bildungspolitik; Elternverhalten; Konflikt; Türkei; USA
Abstract	On a warm December evening in Anaheim, California, in 2015, an out-of-town lawyer stood for public comment at a local school-board meeting and urged members to deny a proposed charter school. Magnolia Public Schools, which operates 10 charters in California, was hoping to open a new science academy. The attorney, John Martin of Amsterdam & Partners, cautioned the board against the proposal. He also noted his role as a representative of the Republic of Turkey, and Magnolia's "suspected ties to the Gulan movement," official meeting minutes show--a misspelled but unmistakable reference to the controversial, pro-democracy Turkish imam living in self-imposed exile in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania: Fethullah Gülen. It was a surprising venue for an international skirmish in the growing battle between Gülen and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dueling Islamists who have been gathering support while growing in opposition to one another in recent years. In the United States, Gülenists have opened an estimated 100-plus charter schools, including the high-performing Harmony Public Schools network in Texas, making the affiliates one of the largest charter operators in the country. Amsterdam & Partners, an international crisis law firm with offices in London and Washington, D.C., was hired to undermine Gülen's influence in the United States and abroad by investigating and attacking American charter schools said to be linked to the cleric. Complicating matters, efforts to discredit Gülen-linked schools have become enmeshed with general criticism from opponents of charter schools--a not-coincidental connection. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Hoover Institution. Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. Tel: 800-935-2882; Fax: 650-723-8626; e-mail: educationnext@hoover.stanford.edu; Web site: http://educationnext.org/journal/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01