Memphis School of Excellence:
Denials and Evidence
Page created Jun 12, 2012
The Memphis School of Excellence is a Gulen charter school in Memphis, Tennessee.
Denials
The Commercial Appeal, a newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, ran a story on Jun 12, 2012 about connections between the Texas-based Cosmos Foundation and a charter school group headed by a former Memphis mayor (Willie Herenton) which has tried to found new publicly-funded charter schools in Tennessee.
The article notes that the Memphis School of Excellence is associated with the Harmony Public Schools chain of charter schools in Texas, which is run by the Cosmos Foundation.
The article states:
"Principal Ali Gumas said the the charter's only link to Harmony is using its teaching model. We receive no funding from the Cosmos Foundation,' Gumas said.
"He has seen the "60 Minutes" story and read media accounts of problems in other states, including reports in Texas where Harmony is accused of awarding contracts to people with Turkish heritage who were not the low bidders.
" 'People are trying to put us in same spot because of our ethnicity,' said Gumas, who is Turkish."
Evidence:
Prinicipal Ali Gumus (not Gumas) is misleading the public by suggesting that the Memphis School of Excellence has no financial ties to the Cosmos Foundation, and no links other than "using its teaching model."
The following snip is taken from a document relating to the Cosmos Foundation's applications for bond financing. The document was created April 19, 2011 and modified August 17, 2011, and can be downloaded from the website of the County Clerk of Fort Bend County, Texas.
The document shows that the Read Foundation, which operates the Memphis School of Excellence, gives the Cosmos Foundation 3% of its annual state funding in exchange for "support services" relating to replicating the Harmony charter school model:
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Furthermore, the Memphis School of Excellence has partnered with the Cosmos Foundation on an i3 grant application to the US Department of Education (US ED) as shown in the images below taken from US ED's website. The current status of this application is unknown, but it is mentioned in a list dated April 2012 that can be downloaded from the US ED website.
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A March 6, 2010 article in the Commercial Appeal stated that "Texas-based Cosmos Foundation will open Memphis School of Excellence." This article was reprinted on the website of the Tennessee Charter Schools Association, where it can still be viewed.
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Ali Gumus was formerly the principal of LISA Academy High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, another Gulen charter school with financial connections to the Cosmos Foundation.
A March 6, 2010 article in the Commercial Appeal stated that "Texas-based Cosmos Foundation will open Memphis School of Excellence." This article was reprinted on the website of the Tennessee Charter Schools Association, where it can still be viewed.
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Ali Gumus was formerly the principal of LISA Academy High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, another Gulen charter school with financial connections to the Cosmos Foundation.
