FBI raids Kenilworth charter school

[madfloridian]

Source: WBRZ Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE - FBI agents raided a charter school today in East Baton Rouge Parish.

An FBI spokesperson could only confirm that agents were at the Kenilworth Science and Technology School on Boone Avenue for a matter not related to public safety. News 2 crews saw FBI agents taking boxes of items out of the school on dollies and loading them into vans.

The charter school is operated by the Pelican Educational Foundation, which in 2011 lost its charter to operate the Abramson Science and Technology Center in New Orleans after allegations of rape and sexual incidents between students.

The school would not comment on today's raid.

Read more: http://www.wbrz.com/news/fbi-raids-kenilworth-charter-school/

---

Here is the news video from WBRZ:

http://www.wbrz.com/videos/fbi-raids-kenilworth-charter-school/

A post by Sharon Higgins at Twitter, who also is known for her Perimeter Primate blog and her Charter School Scandals website, says it is one of the Gulen Charter Schools.

FBI raided Kenilworth Science & Technology #GulenCharterSchool in Louisiana today.

The article further states that the school received a 5 year extension on their charter recently.

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Dang. Looks serious.

[madfloridian]

2. Read more of Sharon Higgin's stuff at Twitter....really amazing stuff.

https://twitter.com/sharonoak

She covers a lot about that Pelican Foundation.

[nikto]

3. Sharon Higgins is the go-to source for The Gulen Charter Schools

Gulen is an inve$tor-group owned by Conservative Islamists from Turkey
who hold a very regressive socio-political worldview.

They control over 100 schools nationwide.

They have totally slipped under the radar of education "experts" all over the country.

Except for Sharon Higgins.

She nails them.

[madfloridian]

4. Also I see a lot of info by following the hashtag.

#GulenCharterSchool

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GulenCharterSchool&src=hash

I just learned that the Gulen based Harmony school got 5 million from Arne's Dept of Ed. for expansion.

http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/1386074627-Harmony-Charter-Schools-Expand-Outside-Texas.html

Tarim says Harmony is expanding in part thanks to a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Last year it also received another federal grant for $30 million from the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top program.

Tarim says Harmony will open more schools in Texas — but not any other states for now.

“We are carefully examining our next generation business plan to see how many schools it’s ideal for us to grow steadily without jeopardizing our program.

There are currently 40 Harmony charter schools in Texas with more than 25,000 students.

[nikto]

6. When I read statements like this I want to puke...

“We are carefully examining our next generation business plan to see how many schools it’s ideal for us to grow..."


Business Plan?

Aaaaargggghhh!!!



I've got an idea.

Instead of having CEOs run America's education system,
let's have teachers run our biggest banks and corporations.

[madfloridian]

5. Update today

http://www.wbrz.com/news/fbi-raid-another-scandal-for-charter-school-company/

The school receives about $5,000,000 in local, state, and federal tax money. In 2012, the Pelican group was accused of improperly handling money by the Legislative Auditor. A report found about $8600 was improperly used to buy gifts for students who scored high on LEAP tests.

But, Lambert believes the school is doing its job. He said student performance has increased to a C and that more than half of the students at Kenilworth are at or above grade level. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved Pelican and Kenilworth to continue to operate for about six more years.

About the same time as allegations and lawsuits began dealing with Pelican charter schools, a BESE member took an improper trip on behalf of another Turkish organization. Linda Johnson, who is no longer on BESE, was fined for breaking the law by the ethics board. She got an all expenses paid trip to Turkey.