A charter school commission in the U.S. state of Alabama approved Friday a 1-year extension to start operation of a charter school despite objections of the superintendent of education, experts and local Alabamians said.
According to local journalist Trisha Powell Crain, who was present at the meeting , the motion was approved after a 5-1 vote.
The commission requested Woodland Preparatory in rural Washington County meet deadlines, otherwise Commissioner Tommy Ledbetter said, "they are subject to violating their contract."
The decision comes amid growing protests from locals and education experts who voiced criticism about the Woodland Prep's poor credentials and its links to a terror group overseas.
State Superintendent of Education in Alabama Eric Mackey sent a letter Tuesday to the charter school commission saying he is "deeply disturbed by many concerns surrounding" the school that is one of over 150 for-profit schools of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in the U.S.
FETO and its U.S.-based billionaire ringleader, Fetullah Gulen, is accused of orchestrating the July 15, 2016 defeated coup which left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured in Turkey.
FETO has a considerable presence outside Turkey, including private schools that serve as a revenue stream for the terror group. It runs some 150 charter schools in several states of the U.S.
After the failed coup, the terror group has depended more heavily on its for-profit schools worldwide, even as the media and education professionals have sharply questioned the schools' purposes and finances.
Mackey's list of concerns include "insufficient student enrollment, insufficient number of school administrators, teachers, and staff, facility and building readiness and compliance, inaccurate or possibly false information contained in the original application as well as the transparency of the charter school governing board and fierce public opposition."
"Should Woodland Preparatory request a further extension form the Charter School Commission, I hope you would weigh each of these serious concerns as part of the deliberative process," added Mackey, urging the commission to not turn a blind eye to charter's defects.
- MANY CONCERNS ABOUT WOODLAND PREP
The Alabama Reporter published a report that drew attention to the school's failure to meet basic educational standards, objections of local community leaders and financial fraud at other FETO schools.
"Its land is owned by a shady Utah holding company. It will be managed by a for-profit Texas company that doesn't employ a single Alabamian. It will pay the head of that management company around $300,000 per year — up front," said the article.
A veteran U.S. education leader committed to saving national public school system, Diane Ravitch, has also blasted the Woodland Prep project in her educational blog.
"The Gulenists [FETO] must think that people in Alabama are easy marks. They proposed to open a charter school in a rural county with good schools that didn't want a charter school."
Ravitch also questioned the high salaries of the Gulen-affiliated administration at the Woodland Prep charter school, located in a poverty-stricken area.
She wrote the school's head "will have a base salary of $300,000 in one of the poorest states in the nation."
