Equity & Diversity

Muslim-Led Schools Say Sept. 11 Affected Charter Decision

By Linda Jacobson — January 30, 2002 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A lawyer for a Muslim-led group of charter schools based in Fresno, Calif., is calling a decision to revoke the school’s charter a reaction to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, and is seeking a court injunction that would allow the schools to continue receiving public funds.

Sept. 11 “was definitely influential in their decision,” said Akil K. Secret, an Atlanta-based lawyer who is representing the Gateway Academy. “I think the decision was clearly politically motivated.”

But officials from the Fresno Unified School District said problems at the K-12 school—which had expanded to satellite campuses throughout the state without the district’s knowledge— started long before the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Information compiled by the district, which cut off all funding to the schools on Jan. 16, outlined numerous financial, educational, and safety violations.

According to a letter from Fresno Superintendent Santiago V. Wood to state Superintendent Delaine Eastin, none of the sites had clearance from fire marshals to operate, more than half of Gateway’s 162 employees were working without criminal-background checks, and two of them were convicted felons.

Gateway Visit

A visit to a Gateway site by a district representative in October also revealed exposed wiring, holes in floors, and a window covered with cardboard.

“It’s not like Gateway didn’t know this was coming,” said Jill Marmolejo, a spokeswoman for the district.

She added that a preliminary audit of the school’s finances showed a deficit of nearly $1 million on Sept. 6, and that officials at the school repeatedly missed deadlines for submitting documents to the district.

While district officials also heard reports that the Koran was being taught at one of the campuses in Silicon Valley, Ms. Marmolejo said they did not personally witness the teaching of religion, which is prohibited at charter schools.

In fact, she said, officials were initially impressed by what they saw in the classroom.

Without public funds, Gateway, which serves more than 600 students, is operating as a “private, voluntary school,” the spokeswoman said, and added that while the school can become independent, she doubts that many of the parents could afford to pay tuition.

While some students from Gateway have transferred back into the Fresno schools since the board’s decision, Mr. Secret said there had not been a large exodus from the school.

Rapid Expansion

Gateway Academy was founded in 2000 by residents of Baladullah, a small, predominantly Muslim village located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and within the Fresno school district.

The school quickly began opening additional satellite campuses, including one in Pomona in Los Angeles County and one in Oakland. At one point, the school had a total of 14 campuses, but currently has 11, four of which are in Fresno County.

“There was chronic opening, closing, and moving of campuses,” Ms. Marmolejo said.

Mr. Secret said that he believes the board’s decision was premature, and that district officials did not give the relatively new school a chance to correct the problems or to have an independent audit conducted.

The district’s deadline for the audit was Jan. 4, after it granted the charter school an extension.

“Their action is not consistent with actions taken by other boards” in disputes with charter schools, he said. “There was no auditing firm that was willing or capable of producing an audit before January 4.”

But Gary Larson, a spokesman for the San Carlos-based California Network of Educational Charters, a membership organization, said the group was “satisfied with the level of oversight and the patience” with which Fresno handled the situation.

He added that while charter school advocates do not want additional restrictions placed on their schools, the organization is pondering legislation that would keep charter schools from opening campuses without first notifying the district that granted their charters.

“It is essential for all schools to notify their authorizing district, but it’s obviously clear that Gateway wasn’t doing that,” Mr. Larson said.

A version of this article appeared in the January 30, 2002 edition of Education Week as Muslim-Led Schools Say Sept. 11 Affected Charter Decision

Events

Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Equity & Diversity Opinion Let DEI Practices Die. Replace Them With Something Better
Individual student agency enabled by strong families and schools can lead students to success, writes a researcher.
Robert Maranto
5 min read
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon meets with students during a visit to Vertex Partnership Academies in New York on March 7, 2025.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon meets with students during a visit to Vertex Partnership Academies in New York City on March 7, 2025.
Courtesy of U.S. Department of Education
Equity & Diversity Opinion Boys Are Struggling in School. What Can Be Done?
Girls outpace boys at nearly every level of academic achievement. Author Richard Reeves shares his thoughts.
6 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
Equity & Diversity Anti-DEI Policies Are Ramping Up—With Big Implications for College Access
A new study looks at how students of color could be affected by policies that ban DEI efforts.
6 min read
Three high school boys and one high school girl work together on an experiment in AP chemistry class.
Three high school boys and one high school girl work together on an experiment in AP chemistry class.
Allison Shelley for All4Ed
Equity & Diversity Opinion How Education Leaders Should Respond to the Anti-DEI Crowd
Decades of essential equity-based work is under threat in our schools today, warns Joshua P. Starr.
Joshua P. Starr
4 min read
202503 Opinion Starr DEI 2155439727
iStock/Getty Images