Thacker: Gulen Charter School Issues in Arizona

Arizona's Gulen charter schools have stopped posting the board minutes as of October 2009. It was then and there they had started covering problems with the schools.  This gives one the feeling that the administrators do not wish for the specifics to get out. As a non-profit charter in Arizona a school is legally held to the standards of being transparent and those board minutes are to be posted publically.

http://www.sonoranacademy.org/district/OrganizationGovernance/BoardMinutes/tabid/68/Default.aspx

Notice on the "Interest Forms" link, how did you know about Sonoran Science Academy? they listed "door hangers" as a medium for advertising? Seriously have they gone this far to attract and to promote new students? I know one thing, when they are telling parents that there is a waiting list when there isn't one this has got to stop. Are they selling used vacuum cleaners or is there focus really on education or are they to focused on the business side of things? After all the fund raising and promotions from private business and public donations as well as grants we have to ask where did all that go?

http://www.sonoranacademy.org/district/Admissions/OnlineInterestForm/tabid/74/Default.aspx

The last thing that may be considered here on this page that strikes me as alarming as a parent and a consumer are the question Has the student ever been or currently suspended or expelled from any school?" and "Has the student ever been or currently under the supervision of a Juvenile Court?" Are these questions there help screen out certain children at risk and then using the misinformation of a waiting list as back door excuse as not to accept that child?

Under Obama's incentive of backing charter schools "Race to the Top" program and educating children as cheaply as possible has created more problems than it has cured. When charter schools decide to pick and choose students and cut back financially for programs because it may not be good for the bottom line or image then it should be more accurately and penned as a "Race to the Bank" program. Entreprenuership of charter schools will be a thing of the past and a failed experiment that parents have chosen for there kids to participate in as lab rats. While charter school owners had made a fast buck in the amount of hundreds and thousands in some cases millions, will have moved on to there next venture. Charter schools like this one are a complete waste of taxpayers and private donor money. What have we ever gotten in return? In fact there is no proof that charter schools educate better than public schools.