Sunday, April 27, 2014

Meet Your New Board of Education

Evidently the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District has been enlisted in the effort to promote Gulenist bullshit across America. Here's a press release from Concept's Horizon Science Academy Belmont, from February.


I wonder if the water people are aware that this test isn't a test that anyone's ever heard of, and I wonder if they're aware that 36 point jump in three months on an academic assessment is, well, suspicious, to say the least. In the game of strategic ambiguity, none of this matters. The point is that enough people will see the numbers, will see the term "state standards," and will think that something actually happened at this school. With test score jumps like these, the kids will be working at Fermilab by fifth grade.

There are no state standards "meets or exceeds" cut scores on a test you invent on your own.

I gotta hand it to these guys; they know how to work people. When I get time, I'll try to figure out exactly which person on the water district board got pulled into the Movement's orbit. But for now, let me just point out that back in Turkey, the defining feature of the Gulen Movement is the establishment of a "parallel state." For example, enough Movement people infiltrated the judiciary so comprehensively that they basically took over that group of institutions from within,  as we read about in The Guardian last year. 

When I review  the scope and scale of the aggressive recruiting of Illinois policymakers, judicial figures, law enforcement leaders, media figures, and now even the completely clueless water reclamation people, I have to point out that what we're seeing here is a cognate phenomenon, at the very least, of a pattern we've seen before, overseas. Relentless pursuit of policymakers and recruiting them into believing and repeating things that aren't exactly true.

And yes, I realize that with kids you praise them for achievements, even on some in-house nonsense test. But who goes to the water board for a proclamation and then issues a press release? It's all so weird,  and yet so typical for these schools. Market, market, market. Blur, blur, blur. Then maneuver the narrative so that it's coming out of the mouths of people in office.

How are people to know where the truth lies, when government agencies are being suborned as notaries to the dubious claims of a dishonest public relations campaign? Should actual neighborhood public schools now embark on aggressive influence campaigns based on parallel facts?

The Water Reclamation Board now has a responsibility, in my opinion, to recognize all of the children at all of the schools where actual gains were made by students on actual assessments for which people are held accountable.

Meanwhile, here's their official commendation. They should print a warehouse of these things because there have been lots and lots of actual achievements in public schools that the water people should acknowledge, since that's what they do now.



I now have a nagging worry that the Board will believe anything it's told, which is disturbing given that our water supply is in their hands. Let's hope this is a one-off.

Meanwhile remember who these commissioners are. One of them is sure to get a Niagara award or a trip to Turkey, or both. The good news is that I didn't seen any stenography of this strange event in the actual press yet, but the year is young. It might surface yet in some truthy neighborhood piece somewhere.

h/t C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S

New to the topic? Please see some of my previous posts.



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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 31, 2014 at 12:09 PM

    Gulenists know the power of media PR, however those with an educated and sophisticated eye can see through it. Unfortunately, they have majority of their students and their families fooled ---they are in poor economic neighborhoods, where drugs, prison etc., are commonplace. Here come the Turks promising "college for their kids" "field trips to Turkey" "doing home visits" and more these parents get Turkish cooking classes and more. They are so so uneducated they don't know subtle indoctrination all they see is "freebies". The Gulen web is WAY too deep for them to grasp or wrap their heads around. Sad but true. The tragic part of this whole thing is that America has shirked it's responsibility onto foreigners to educate and care for American children.

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  2. AnonymousMay 31, 2014 at 12:12 PM

    BTW Horizon Science Academy, Downtown Toledo, OH has announced it will close June 2014. Guess they are going to concentrate on their 2 new Horizon Schools in corrupt Chicago and milk the local taxpayers, and Baptist group of every dime they can. It's doubtful they will grow in Illinois after this last state ruling to shutter the State Charter Commission. This should cost Madigan's job as well, he is not watching on behalf of American Citizens but rather for the foreign interests of Gulen Movement.

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