Uses of charter schools = political ops? Turkish religious leader largest charter operator?

[Hannah Bell]

In 2009 there was a brief flurry of attention given to a possible link between a multi-state "chain" of charter schools (Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New , Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin) & the "Gulen Movement".

http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/06/sonoran-science-academy-tucson.html

http://www.turkishforum.com.tr/en/content/2009/06/23/fetullah-gulens-schools-are-all-over-the-us/

***


The Gulen movement is reportedly a loosely organized, world-wide association of institutions founded by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish-born Islamic scholar & now a US resident.

It's difficult to know what exactly Gulen's about. His own website & those of his followers speak of peace & love; his detractors have another story:

"Fethullah's aim is the Islamization of Turkish nationality and the Turcification of Islam in foreign countries..." Balcı explained, "He wants to revive the link between state, religion, and society."

Gulen followers are said to control the Turkish police as well:

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/05/15/behind-turkey-s-witch-hunt.html

Gulen himself is currently living in Pennsylvania, having left Turkey under a cloud (Turkish courts brought suit against him for trying to take over the secular Turkish state).

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/05/15/behind-turkey-s-witch-hunt.html

Given some of his pro-buisiness, pro-west pronouncements & the apparent ease with which his followers established their private network of US charter schools, another thesis can't be overlooked: that Gulen & his movement are, in some part, US-sponsored. I came to this idea without help, but I'm not the first person to do so:

http://www.turkishforum.com.tr/en/content/2010/05/16/the-gulen-movement-plays-big-in-washington/

Magnolia Schools personnel's apparently solid links with various universities also indicate some solid domestic backers.


In this regard, it's interesting that bans on Gulen-associated schools have been established in Uzbekistan & Russia, & that there was an official inquiry into the movement & its schools in the Netherlands.

***


Whatever he & his followers' real motivations, the world-wide empire-building aspect of the Gulen movement is impossible to miss: it owns banks & other financial institutions, think-tanks, TV & other media, lobbyists -- and schools.

"The core of Gülen's network is his educational institutions. His school network is impressive. Nurettin Veren, Gülen's right-hand man for thirty-five years, estimated that some 75 percent of Turkey's two million preparatory school students are enrolled in Gülen institutions. He controls thousands of top-tier secondary schools, colleges, and student dormitories throughout Turkey, as well as private universities, the largest being Fatih University in Istanbul.

Outside Turkey, his movement runs hundreds of secondary schools and dozens of universities in 110 countries worldwide."

http://www.meforum.org/2045/fethullah-gulens-grand-ambition

***

My interest was initially sparked when, researching something else, I came across a network of California charters which all had Turkish principals & boards. The students took a lot of trips to Turkey: field trips, spring break trips, etc.

These were the Magnolia Schools.

http://www.magnoliacharterschools.org/

I thought the all-Turkish principals were a bit unusual -- in schools which were reportedly majority Latino. Invetigating further, I found board members & execs linked to other organizations. For example, Suleyman Bahceci.

At the time, Bahceci was CEO of the Magnolia Education & Research Foundation (the "non-profit" management organization that runs the Magnolia chain) & a member of the Magnolia board.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VQ-6FJDEqCcJ:issuu.com/msa4news/docs/reflections__winter_2010_+suleyman+bahceci&cd=22&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

More on Bahceci:

-- Graduate of Orta Dorgu Technical University (Turkey) BS 1992, MS 1995
-- Graduate of U. Texas, Austin MA Computational Chem 1997, PhD 1999
-- Listed on one of his bios as developer/founder of Austin TX charter schools
-- Only non-education job listed is 2 years with the biotech company, Exelixis
-- Former member Board of Directors, Accord Institute

http://www.google.com/#q=%22suleyman+bahceci%22+accord+institute&hl=en&start=10&sa=N&fp=e73b16faf0160c30

-- Board of Directors, Willow Education:

Willow runs runs tutoring services in the Oakland public schools. It also runs Baytech (Bay Area Technology School, a grade 6-12 charter specializing in math/sciences that also takes regular field trips to Turkey).

Baytech opened using a 2003 $450K grant from the state of California -- a "charter school start-up grant." Willow also, "with the help of more than $200,000 donations," built "one of the best state-of-the art Science and Computer labs in the district."

And California's funding another "start-up" grant so Willow can open another school: this time for $405K.

http://we-team.org/about/about.html
http://www.baytechschool.org/j/

Newspaper accounts connect Bahceci to at least one Turkish-run charter in another state. The connection came to light in the wake of complaints from parents enrolled in Turkish-run schools in Arizona & Utah.

Bahceci reportedly made a personal loan of $30K to Utah's "Beehive Science & Technology" charter. Other Magnolia schools & Accord Institute personnel also loaned that school money. There are other business ties between the California & Utah schools & institutes as well:

http://www.sltrib.com/education/ci_12855515


Although the connections were denied in the news accounts, the Accord Institute's own newsletter calls the Sonoran Science Academies (Tucson, Phoenix), the Magnolia schools, Baytech, & the Coral Science Academy (Reno NV) "member schools" of the Accord Institute, & notes its "winter institute" for students & staff in California, Nevada, Arizona & Utah.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:lfH08hPPhQ8J:www.accordeducation.org/accordquarterly/accord_quarterly_volume1_issue1.pdf+%22accord+institute%22+grant&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjIqVDvV3-Av5_OivcXMQUy50rAcIWLFpTsx_YLWi55uUHBvtuDFGCMyAR0HazuQYHRGi29Zh_yMUpEpbbb9jOFtZfavJCSZJkHsAb5lR-IkQ5iRBljVnkT7Fn49YR-u01y-Q-A&sig=AHIEtbSTLekP9WJTEfGO8d6T9cHJ3T4ebg


H1B visas:

Another interesting point about the Magnolia schools & other schools where Turks predominate as board members & principals is their fondness for H1B visas:


Here's the Magnolia Education & Research Foundation: 77 H1B apps since 2007:

-- including 9 requests for English or English as a Second Language teachers (since Magnolia schools are reportedly majority Latino -- why do they need Turkish ESL teachers to teach hispanic kids english?)

Not to mention requests for computer science teachers (lots of unemployed computer scientists in the US right now...), history teachers (none in the US?), etc.

http://www.myvisajobs.com/H1B_Visa_Employer.aspx?N=Magnolia+Educational+and+Research+Foundation&E=799321&OG=Education&SO=All&Z=90248&Y=All

http://www.myvisajobs.com/H1B_Visa_Employer.aspx?N=Magnolia+Educational+and+Research+Foundation&E=799321&OG=Education&SO=All&Z=90247&Y=All

http://www.myvisajobs.com/H1B_Visa_Employer.aspx?N=Dialog+Foundation+dba+Magnolia+Science+Academy&E=333524&OG=Education&SO=All&Z=91335&Y=All


Here's the Accord Institute: 16 apps since 2007

http://www.myvisajobs.com/H1B_Visa_EmpList.aspx?E=accord%20institute&OG=Education&SO=All&Y=All

Willow Education/Baytech: 19 applications since 2007: 7 science teachers, 2 computer teachers, 2 computer/network administrators, 4 math teachers, etc.

http://www.myvisajobs.com/H1B_Visa_Employer.aspx?N=Willow+Education+(dba+Bay+Area+Technology+School)&E=599262&OG=All&SO=All&WC=Oakland&WS=CA&Y=All


For general interest, here's a Texas charter school network that's largely Turkish in its upper echelons: The Cosmos Foundation which runs Texas' Harmony chain of charters: 1157 applications 2001-2010, 280 of them in 2009.

That makes it the 252nd-biggest sponsor of H1B's in the US.

http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Sponsor/Cosmos-Foundation-dba-Harmony-Science-Academy/131451.htm

The Harmony schools have 32 campuses in TX, including 3 in Austin. I've found no evidence of any connection to the California Magnolia Schools or to Mr. Bahceci. However, math & science & science olympiads also feature prominently at the Harmony schools, & the timing of the schools' foundation (approx 2000-2002) is right.


***

Schools are always institutions of "indoctrination," whether or not we consider that indoctrination in a positive or negative light.

In my opinion, one of the disturbing aspects of the charter school movement is that private parties can establish & use school networks under the radar for political/economic purposes which are largely unknown to the general public -- & using public money to do so.

So reports that Gulen-affiliated schools are the LARGEST NETWORK OF CHARTER SCHOOLS IN THE US are troubling. As it would be if it were a private corporation, the Southern Baptists, the Moonies, the Scientologists, the Soka Gakkai, Iran's Tudeh party, the communists, the fascists, or the US Republican or Democratic Parties running them.

Particularly if these private entities were creaming off young students particularly interested in science & math, allowing them to identify & direct top students early.

If you prefer unity to balkanization, that is. If you prefer public disclosure to hidden operations & finances, that is. If you prefer democracy to oligarchy, that is.

[Luminous Animal]

1. Excellent job, Hannah Bell.

I only recently ran into to the Gulen affiliation with U.S. charter schools and I am so glad that you've done the research.

[leftstreet]

2. A very good point

If it were "the Southern Baptists, the Moonies, the Scientologists...." people would be up in arms crying foul over an assumed agenda.

But make it a Gulen or a Gates, and suddenly the assumption is that private enterprise/capitalism is apolitical, amoral, a-okay!

Excellent source links in your post

K&R

[Hannah Bell]

3. i think the science/math focus is worrisome too, if there's a link to any leader of a religious/

political movement or covert ops.

[Starry Messenger]

4. marking to read more tomorrow.

[madrchsod]

5. nice work....to late to read everything....

be back in a few hours to read the post....

[JDPriestly]

6. Magnolia Charters in the Los Angeles area

http://www.magnoliacharterschools.org/

The Reseda Magnolia Charter School sponsored a trip to Turkey and Europe for four students.

Europe Trip

MSA had a wonderful trip to Turkey with 4 students and 2 teachers during the spring break.
"Traveling to Turkey was an amazing experience. I had so much fun and learned a lot about the culture. The food was great as well, even though they wouldn't stop feeding us... read more

There was also some sort of Turkish contest.

Arizona Trip and Turkish Contest

MSA had a trip to Arizona with 13 students, 3 parents and 4 teachers for four days during the spring break. We went to Grand Canyon. The following day we went to Phoenix for the Turkish Competiton. Our students competed in poem, skit and special talent categories.
see the pictures

http://reseda.magnoliascience.org/

Note that "competiton" spelling. Hope they spell in Turkish better than they do in English.

Of course, I make a lot of typos on DU, but I assume the website for the Reseda Magnolia Charter is not prepared as quickly as we prepare our DU posts.

[Hannah Bell]

7. "sponsored" a trip to Turkey for four students & two teachers? I wonder who paid for what.

http://reseda.magnoliascience.org/index.php?option=com_datsogallery&Itemid=67&func=detail&catid=39&id=755

Guessing the woman on the left in head scarf & the older guy with glasses = the two teachers. Maybe they're married. But the guy on the right (hidden) looks older too, so who knows.

I'm guessing the boy with glasses is their son. he kind of looks like the teacher with glasses. The dark-haired girl looks hispanic, & so does her name. The other two students & guy on the end -- ?

just guessing.

so the school trips to turkey = free vacations for turkish staff or students? drug courier appointments? what? cause they're obviously not for the benefit of most of the students.

if they're officially sponsored trips, i bet they're paid for, at least in part, with school funds.

[Hannah Bell]

8. an article on gulen schools in ethiopia & elsewhere in africa, including a nigerian university

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0128/1224263289907.html

“MERHABA! MERHABA!” – the Turkish greeting echoes through the school corridor as neatly uniformed Ethiopian children welcome a visitor. That morning the children sang the Turkish national anthem along with their own.

On the school walls, vocabulary charts to help pupils improve their command of Turkish hang alongside framed verses of Rumi’s poetry. In the principal’s office a portrait of Ataturk dominates. This is one of four “Ethio-Turkish” schools in the Ethiopian capital, catering for more than 400 children from kindergarten to high school...

The schools – whose motto reads, “the place where love and knowledge embrace” – are established and run by devotees of a Turkish Islamic scholar named Fethullah Gulen. Little known outside Turkey, Gulen is hailed by his millions of followers there as a tolerant, modernising force. Some secularist Turks, however, suspect the movement of harbouring a political agenda that owes more than a little to Ottoman nostalgia...

Some in Turkey have described the Gulen movement as something akin to “Muslim Jesuits” preparing pious elites to run the country. Yavuz argues that there is a wider agenda as manifested by its increasingly global reach. “The movement, which is rooted in selective vision of the glorious Ottoman past, has its own imperial vision of turning Turkey into a global power,” he says.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0128/1224263289907.html

[Hannah Bell]

9. Bill Gates reportedly made a grant to the Cosmos Foundation

In 2007, through the Texas High School Project, the Gates Foundation shelled out $10,550,000 to the Cosmos Foundation, a Gulen enterprise that operates 25 publicly funded charter schools in Texas.

The Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for Cosmos shows that the Cosmos Foundation received $41,570,721 from taxpayers.

http://islamizationwatch.blogspot.com/2010/05/bill-gates-funds-gulen-islamist.html

the source is winger, so i'll see what i can find elsewhere.


here's a blurb about the philanthropy roundtable: a cosmos foundation person is listed as a speaker at one of their events. that would seem to indicate these folks are on some bigshots' radars -- & they don't mind the association.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8ykSheEhhC8J:www.philanthropyroundtable.org/files/K-12%2520Dallas%2520Speakers'%2520Biographies.doc+%22gates+foundation%22+%22cosmos+foundation%22&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us


ah, yes, here it is:

Leader in T-STEM in Texas

Fourteen Harmony schools have been designated as T-STEM (Texas Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) Academies. They have received funding from public and private organizations such as Gates Foundation and Dell Foundation as part of the Texas High School Project. As of 2009, there were 35 total T-STEM academies in Texas.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vXu7h-NZOXAJ:www.harmonytx.org/achievements/+%22gates+foundation%22+%22cosmos+foundation%22&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

more on t-stem:

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=4470

Does gates research its primary & secondary grantees? My guess is yes.

BTW, microsoft = #1 H1B visa sponsor in the US.

The Dallas Independent school district = # 90, the only public school district on the charts. It has a lot of charters.

Next-highest school system on the H1B sponsor list is the gulen-affiliated Texas Harmony/Cosmos foundation network listed in the OP, #252: the one gates reportedly gave $10 million to.


Texas is the origin of half the rotten shit in the US. Not surprisingly, being an original colony of the City Bank mafia:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/fst57.html

STILLMAN, CHARLES (1810–1875). Charles Stillman, son of Francis and Harriet (Robbins) Stillman, was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, on November 4, 1810. In February 1828 he went by way of New Orleans to Matamoros. In Mexico he developed a network of mercantile and industrial enterprises, including cotton brokerage and real estate firms, silver mines in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, merchandise outlets, a shipping company that carried passengers and goods from the Gulf Coast up the river as far as Rio Grande City, and an off-loading, warehousing, and transportation company that carried goods to the Mexican interior as far as Guadalajara....

During the Mexican War Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy joined Stillman in the transport company hauling American troops up the river and supplying them. In the aftermath of the Mexican defeat Stillman purchased massive properties of the Garza grant north and northwest of Matamoros from the children of the first wife of José Narciso Cavazos. The sellers, however, had no legal right to make such a sale... The excluded children of the first wife "sold" not only the family estates but also the ejido or community property of Matamoros, which was inalienable under Spanish and Mexican law. Nevertheless, Stillman started a town company to sell lots for as much as $1,500 each and named the place Brownsville...Stillman later sold the enormous ranch property north of Brownsville to his partner Kenedy. The lands to the west of Brownsville were left to his son, James Stillman. As a result of land transactions and rising violence, many of the Mexicans fled south of the river and, led by Cortina, carried out a range war that continued for twenty-six years. In 1851 Stillman helped bankroll the attempted invasion of Mexico by José María Carbajalqv for the purpose of setting up the Republic of the Sierra Madre...

Between 1862 and 1865 Stillman, King, and Kenedy transported Confederate cotton to Matamoros under contract for payment in gold. Stillman bought much of the cotton and sent it to his textile complex at Monterrey, but he sold even more of it in New York...The United States government was a major purchaser... By the end of the war Stillman was one of the richest men in America. He concentrated his investments in the National City Bank of New York, which his son James later controlled, and supplied Brackenridge with $200,000 in the 1870s in order to establish the San Antonio National Bank...

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/fstbp.html

STILLMAN, JAMES (1850–1918). James Stillman, son of Elizabeth Pamela (Goodrich) and Charles Stillman, was born on June 9, 1850, at Brownsville, Texas. He took over his father's financial and mercantile empire in New York, Texas, and Mexico in 1872 and turned it into the controlling interest in the National City Bank in New York and the most powerful force in the development of the Rio Grande valley. He greatly expanded the interests in Texas that he inherited from his father. His Texas holdings included the bonds of sixteen banks; control of land-development companies in the lower Rio Grande valley, Corpus Christi, and Kerrville; an interest in the Swenson Ranch; and, with the other three members of the "Big Four"- W. H. Harriman, Jacob Henry Schiff, and William Rockefeller-control of most Texas railroads. The Big Four served as directors under his chairmanship on the board, put together by Stillman, of the National City Bank. They controlled the Texas and Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the International-Great Northern, the Union Pacific Southern, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico, and the Mexican National, which ran from Corpus Christi to Mexico City and from the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico terminus on the border at Brownsville to the Mexican capital.

In 1876 Stillman supported the successful Revolution of Tuxtepec, conducted by Mexican general Porfirio Díaz from Brownsville, which resulted in the overthrow of the Mexican government...

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Wow

Lots to take in. Bookmarking.

Thanks Hannah!

[Hannah Bell]

11. gulen schools in central asia

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1053209.html

Bayram Balci of the Istanbul-based French Institute of Anatolian Studies is one of the few scholars who have extensively researched the Gulen movement in Central Asia. He says some features of the group's missionary activities in the region suggest a parallel with the Roman Catholic Church's Society of Jesus.

" the top priority is to spread modern, scientific teaching with a view to forming new cadres for these countries. That doesn't mean that they do not teach religious values. Simply they're kind of teaching a behavior based on ethics. They do not teach religion per se. For them this is not the priority. In all my works, I've been comparing them with the Jesuits. I call them 'the Jesuits of Islam,' because they give a high-quality education and kind of promote a sense of elitism. Teaching religious values comes only after that," Balci says.

Balci says the moral integrity that generally characterizes Nurcu teachers has also contributed to making the Gulen schools popular among both local governments and residents.

Another leading expert on the Gulen movement, political scientist Hakan Yavuz of the University of Utah, says the close ties that the group has been maintaining with Turkish business circles have also played a major role in its Central Asian expansion..."Their goal is to create a new generation is socially conservative, nationally oriented toward Turkey and 'Turkishness,' scientifically endowed with new knowledge and new information. They have been active in Central Asia to create an 'altin nesil,' ," Yavuz says.

[Hannah Bell]

12. President Clinton thanks the Gulen movement

President Clinton thanks the Gülen Movement
42nd U.S. President Clinton thanks the Gülen Movement for contributions to world peace and security

42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton's delivered his remarks at the 3rd Annual Friendship Dinner by Turkish Cultural Center. “In this interdependent world, the fates of people on opposite sides of the globe are increasingly linked; and it is critical to keep the lines of communication open as much as we can. That is why the communication between the Turkish-American community and the people of Turkey is so important. You are contributing to lasting peace and security at home and abroad; the promotion of the ideas of tolerance and interfaith dialogue inspired by Fethullah Gülen in his transnational social movement.

See the video here.

http://www.guleninstitute.org/index.php/2008100175/Movement-in-the-Press/42nd-U.S.-President-Clinton-thanks-the-Gulen-Movement-for-contributions-to-world-peace-and-security.html


The Gülen Institute was established in October 2007 as a non-profit organization and a joint initiative of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and the Institute of Interfaith Dialog.

Texas again.

[Hannah Bell]

13. Obama advisor Mogahed says Gulen movement "an inspiration"

Gülen movement an inspiration for all, says Obama’s Muslim advisor Mogahed

US President Barack Obama’s Muslim advisor Dalia Mogahed has said the Gülen movement is a model and inspiration for all those working for the good of the society.

Dalia Mogahed, appointed by US President Barack Obama and the first Muslim woman to be a member of the White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, has said the Gülen movement, a faith-based social movement named after Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, is a model and inspiration for all those working for the good of the society.

http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=177999.

[Hannah Bell]

14. gulen's home in the poconos

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100418/NEWS/4180350.

seems likely that gulen is a US-approved muslim cleric, given his recs from politicians, his visa & the spread of his followers' schools in the US.

Per this non-fundie christian site:

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/spengler/2009/10/16/more-judeophobic-paranoia-at-pat-buchanans-shop/

Gulen is the 68-year-old spiritual leader of an Islamist movement that claims to have branches in 80 countries, and–with the help of Turkey’s Islamist government–controls large parts of the Turkish media. (sibel) Edmonds’ most astonishing allegation, widely publicized over the past several years, is that the CIA sponsored Gulen in cooperation with Saudi and Pakistani partners as an instrument against Russia and China in Central Asia.

In 2008 Gulen, who live in exile in the United States, was denied a Green Card after a Philadelphia hearing. The secular Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported at the time:

Gülen’s financial resources were detailed in the public prosecutor’s arguments, which claimed that Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Turkish government, and the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, were behind the Gülen movement. It stated that some businessmen in Ankara donated 10 to 70 percent of their annual income to the movement and that it corresponded to $20,000 to $300,000 per year per person. It added that one businessman in Istanbul donated $4-5 million each year and that young people graduating from Gülen’s schools donated between $2,000 and $5,000 each year.

The Russians have always thought that Gulen was sponsored by CIA, and kicked his organization out of their territory in 2002...

****

as the writer says, covert political ops = "hall of mirrors" & we peons are never going to get to the bottom of it.

thus, i don't want private parties who might be involved in this kind of covert politics RUNNING US SCHOOLS.

I don't think most americans would.

But charter schools make it worlds easier for them to do so.

[Hannah Bell]

22. kik

[Oilwellian]

15. I wonder if Gulen...

ever appeared on Sibel Edmonds radar. Great work Hannah. K&R

[Hannah Bell]

16. see 2nd link post 14. answer is yes. it's all deep politics, why should schools be involved in it.

[donco6]

17. That's bizarre.

With the 3rd degree I had to go through to get approved through SEVIS to issue F1 visas for high school exchange students, how on earth are they issuing all these H1Bs?

[madfloridian]

18. Don't forget...these schools get taxpayer money...your money.

Which is being taken away from public schools.

[Starry Messenger]

19. I'm reading some blogs on Gulen this morning

So far it is interesting to note that apparently his followers eagerly spam the comments sections with links to the "movement". That kind of heavy-handed message control behavior is nearly always seen in cult members. It's alarming that the movement has so many schools.

[Catshrink]

20. As I read through this I kept thinking Moonies for some reason

yeah, I know different continent, different nationality, etc. But dang...

This is some scary stuff, Hannah Bell.

[Catshrink]

21. Another reason to break teachers' unions: H1Bs

[Hannah Bell]

23. k

[madfloridian]

24. Looks like 4 of them in Florida.

FLORIDA (4)

* Orlando Science Middle School (Orlando)
* River City Science Academy (Jacksonville)
* Sweetwater Branch Academy (Gainesville)
* Stars Middle School (Tallahassee)

------

http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2010/06/us-fethullahci-schools-sometimes.html