Florida Schools Evidence of affiliation with Gulen Movement:
Orlando Science Middle/High Charter School 2427 Lynx Lane, Orlando 32804,
River City Science Academy 3266 Southside Blvd, Jax
Sweetwater Branch Academy 1000 NE 16th Ave., Bldg C, Gainsville
Stars Middle School 1234 Blountstown Hwy, Tallahassee 32304
New Springs Middle School 2410 E Busch Blvd, Tampa 33612
GULEN SHOULD NOT BE RUNNING OUR CHARTER SCHOOLS!
A secretive foreign network of Islamic radicals now operates dozens of charter schools -- which receive government money but are not required to adopt a state-approved curriculum -- on U.S. soil. The inspirer of this conspiratorial effort is Fethullah Gülen, who directs a major Islamist movement in Turkey and the Turkish Diaspora but lives in the United States. He is number thirteen among the world's "50 most influential Muslims," according to one prominent listing.
Gülen has been criticized as the puppet master for the current Turkish government headed by the "soft Islamist" Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials as the AKP, in its slow-motion showdown with the secularist Turkish military. But Gülen is also known in Muslim countries for his network of 500-700 Islamic schools around the world, according to differing sources favorable to his movement. A more critical view of Gülen's emphasis on education asserts that his international network of thousands of primary and secondary schools, universities, and student residences is a key element in solidifying an Islamist political agenda in Turkey.
But in startling news for Americans, the Gülen movement operates more than 85 primary and secondary schools on our soil. A roster of the Gülen schools and of the numerous foundations that support them has been released to the public by the patriotic group Act! for America. The Gülen schools are often designated as "science academies" and are concentrated in Texas, Ohio, and California -- with others scattered across the rest of the country.
Two states that host Gülen charter schools are Arizona and Utah. In the former, the Daisy Education Corporation (the Gülen movement loves friendly-sounding institutional names) operates three schools in Tucson: one serving kindergarten through the eighth grade, another designated as an elementary school, and a middle-high school, all under the rubric of the Sonoran Science Academy. In Phoenix, it runs a satellite kindergarten-to-10th-grade campus with the same name.
The appearance of Gülen charter schools in Tucson has produced critical attention in local media. The Tucson Weeklypublished a report at the end of 2009 noting that the Sonoran Science Academy in the southern Arizona town had been named "charter school of the year" by the Arizona Charter School Association. But writer Tim Vanderpool reported that according to one dismayed parent, who declined identification while pointing out the Gülen movement's history of intimidating critics, "the Sonoran Academy seems constantly to be bringing Turkish educators into the United States, and subjecting students to substitute teachers while the teachers await work visas." Vanderpool submits that "several Sonoran Academy parents believe the school has a hidden agenda to promote Gülen's brand of Turkish nationalism, advance sympathy for that country's political goals such as winning acceptance into the European Union, and discourage official acknowledgment of Turkey's genocide against the Armenians during World War I." Such issues are exotic, to say the least, for Tucson parents.
Earlier in 2009, the Beehive Science and Technology Academy, a high school in Salt Lake City, came under similar critical scrutiny from the Salt Lake Tribune. That major daily's writer, Kirsten Stewart, reported that the Utah State Charter Board had begun an investigation of the Beehive school following complaints from a former teacher and an alarmed parent. The complainants asserted that while "Beehive advertises itself as a public charter school offering college-bound seventh through 12th graders a foundation in math and science ... the school has another mission: to advance and promote certain Islamic beliefs. They point to questionable financial transactions and hiring practices as proof of the school's covert ties to Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen."
But while Fatih Karatas, principal of the Sonoran Science Academy middle school in Tucson, flatly denied any connection with the Gülen movement, Beehive principal Muhammet "Frank" Erdogan in Salt Lake City admitted such links in the case of his school. The Salt Lake Tribune quoted his admission that along with him, "many of Beehive's teachers and founders also support Gülen's ideals." The paper also described how "Adam Kuntz, a first-year history teacher at Beehive, was fired [in spring 2009], he alleges, for taking academic freedom concerns to the state board. Earlier in the school year, Kuntz had a run-in with Erdogan over a lesson plan on World War II and the Holocaust. Erdogan wanted Kuntz to revise the plan and during a tape-recorded meeting, questioned conventional accounts of the genocide."
Kelly Wayment, a parent of three children in the school, was removed from his post on the Beehive administrative board after he e-mailed other parents about Gülen movement influence in the school. Wayment told the Salt Lake Tribune that as in the Tucson case, teachers "tend to be from Turkey and central Asian republics living here on work visas."
Americans should ask both why and how the Islamist Gülen movement has managed to establish such a large presence for Turkish religious political indoctrination in publicly financed education -- and should unite to oppose it.
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C. This article was sponsored by Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
Gulen Charter School Scandals http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/06/gulen-charter-school-network-update.html
Gülen has been criticized as the puppet master for the current Turkish government headed by the "soft Islamist" Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials as the AKP, in its slow-motion showdown with the secularist Turkish military. But Gülen is also known in Muslim countries for his network of 500-700 Islamic schools around the world, according to differing sources favorable to his movement. A more critical view of Gülen's emphasis on education asserts that his international network of thousands of primary and secondary schools, universities, and student residences is a key element in solidifying an Islamist political agenda in Turkey.
But in startling news for Americans, the Gülen movement operates more than 85 primary and secondary schools on our soil. A roster of the Gülen schools and of the numerous foundations that support them has been released to the public by the patriotic group Act! for America. The Gülen schools are often designated as "science academies" and are concentrated in Texas, Ohio, and California -- with others scattered across the rest of the country.
Two states that host Gülen charter schools are Arizona and Utah. In the former, the Daisy Education Corporation (the Gülen movement loves friendly-sounding institutional names) operates three schools in Tucson: one serving kindergarten through the eighth grade, another designated as an elementary school, and a middle-high school, all under the rubric of the Sonoran Science Academy. In Phoenix, it runs a satellite kindergarten-to-10th-grade campus with the same name.
The appearance of Gülen charter schools in Tucson has produced critical attention in local media. The Tucson Weeklypublished a report at the end of 2009 noting that the Sonoran Science Academy in the southern Arizona town had been named "charter school of the year" by the Arizona Charter School Association. But writer Tim Vanderpool reported that according to one dismayed parent, who declined identification while pointing out the Gülen movement's history of intimidating critics, "the Sonoran Academy seems constantly to be bringing Turkish educators into the United States, and subjecting students to substitute teachers while the teachers await work visas." Vanderpool submits that "several Sonoran Academy parents believe the school has a hidden agenda to promote Gülen's brand of Turkish nationalism, advance sympathy for that country's political goals such as winning acceptance into the European Union, and discourage official acknowledgment of Turkey's genocide against the Armenians during World War I." Such issues are exotic, to say the least, for Tucson parents.
Earlier in 2009, the Beehive Science and Technology Academy, a high school in Salt Lake City, came under similar critical scrutiny from the Salt Lake Tribune. That major daily's writer, Kirsten Stewart, reported that the Utah State Charter Board had begun an investigation of the Beehive school following complaints from a former teacher and an alarmed parent. The complainants asserted that while "Beehive advertises itself as a public charter school offering college-bound seventh through 12th graders a foundation in math and science ... the school has another mission: to advance and promote certain Islamic beliefs. They point to questionable financial transactions and hiring practices as proof of the school's covert ties to Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen."
But while Fatih Karatas, principal of the Sonoran Science Academy middle school in Tucson, flatly denied any connection with the Gülen movement, Beehive principal Muhammet "Frank" Erdogan in Salt Lake City admitted such links in the case of his school. The Salt Lake Tribune quoted his admission that along with him, "many of Beehive's teachers and founders also support Gülen's ideals." The paper also described how "Adam Kuntz, a first-year history teacher at Beehive, was fired [in spring 2009], he alleges, for taking academic freedom concerns to the state board. Earlier in the school year, Kuntz had a run-in with Erdogan over a lesson plan on World War II and the Holocaust. Erdogan wanted Kuntz to revise the plan and during a tape-recorded meeting, questioned conventional accounts of the genocide."
Kelly Wayment, a parent of three children in the school, was removed from his post on the Beehive administrative board after he e-mailed other parents about Gülen movement influence in the school. Wayment told the Salt Lake Tribune that as in the Tucson case, teachers "tend to be from Turkey and central Asian republics living here on work visas."
Americans should ask both why and how the Islamist Gülen movement has managed to establish such a large presence for Turkish religious political indoctrination in publicly financed education -- and should unite to oppose it.
Stephen Suleyman Schwartz is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C. This article was sponsored by Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
Gulen Charter School Scandals http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/06/gulen-charter-school-network-update.html
Yesterday the
reporters at the San Antonio Express-News published an investigative
article about the Turkish Gulen-Cosmos Foundation-Harmony Charter Schools. The
article states, “…the
TEA[Texas Education
Agency] has spent the past several months conducting
an audit of roughly $540,000 in ‘inadequately documented’ federal grant funds
received by the Cosmos Foundation, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta
Culbertson said.” The point that the
public needs to remember is that these Turkish schools operate on our public
money; they are not private schools that have the right to set their own
policies.
Underneath the excerpts from the San Antonio Express-News article, I have posted my piece (12.9.11 – “Gulen-Inspired Schools Under Fire”) in which I have included numerous links that tie this whole network of Turkish charter schools together under Fethullah Gulen, an Islamist imam.
On 7.29.11, the Gulenists overthrew Turkey’s previous military leaders and are now instigating Sharia law in that country. This same pattern of step-by-step indoctrination by the Turkish Gulenists is undoubtedly occurring in our own country under the guise of these Turkish charter schools that ironically are using our taxpayers’ dollars to do it.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Harmony-schools-causing-discord-2435402.php
Harmony schools causing discord - By Lindsay Kastner, lkastner@express-news.net
Updated 12:17 a.m., Sunday, January 1, 2012 Excerpts from this article:
The 36 schools that make up the Harmony charter school network are among the highest-rated in Texas.
But despite its glowing academic record, Harmony has received a flurry of criticism for its business practices.
In particular, the charter network's reliance on visas for Turkish-born staff and use of Turkish-owned businesses for construction and other contracts has raised questions about how it spends taxpayer money and whether it is too insular.
In just more than a decade, Harmony Public Schools, operated by the Cosmos Foundation of Houston, has grown to become one of the largest charter school networks in Texas, serving about 16,700 students last school year. Two schools, with about 900 students last year, are in San Antonio. Some Harmony critics point to a burgeoning number of Turkish-American-led charter networks in the United States, more than 120 in 25 states, that they say are tied to Islamic political leader Fethullah Gulen…
From 2008 to 2010, the Labor Department certified 1,197 H-1B visa requests from the Cosmos Foundation — more than double the number of visas certified nationwide for Texas-based computer company Dell USA and about 70 percent as many as were certified for tech giant Apple Inc. …The visas are intended to attract foreign workers with skills that are in short supply among American workers.
Harmony has about 290 employees working on H-1B visas, or 16 percent of its workforce, according to Superintendent Soner Tarim. Most are Turkish, said Tarim, who is also from Turkey. Few other Texas school districts hire significant numbers of workers on H-1B visas.
“Staffing Northside schools has never really been a problem,” said Pascual Gonzalez, spokesman for Bexar County's largest school district with 97,000 students, where Labor Department records show no H-1B visa certifications in recent years. “In the past there have been thousands of people applying for hundreds of jobs.”
At Harmony, Tarim said the charter network finds a shortage of qualified teachers in math, science and English as a second language sometimes prompts them to hire foreign workers. He noted that Harmony's focus on science and math means particularly high recruiting standards in those areas. …Nearly a third of the H-1B certifications received by Cosmos actually were for jobs outside those fields, however.
…Some students say they have trouble understanding foreign-born teachers. “One of our teachers ... is Turkish,” sixth-grader Noah Nabers volunteered. “And it's kind of hard to understand him.”
...Like most charter school operators, Harmony's first schools opened in former stores and spaces leased from churches. Harmony still operates some storefront campuses, but over time began to build its own schools using money from the sale of public bonds.
Tarim bristled at the implication that the charter network was giving much of its work to a closed circle of Turkish-owned businesses. …eight of the charter network's 10 largest contracts have gone to just two companies, both of which have close ties to Cosmos: the Houston-based contracting firms Solidarity Contracting and TDM Contracting.
Solidarity is run by a former Harmony school business manager, according to a report by the New York Times. TDM was formed a couple of years ago by a former Solidarity employee. Together, the two young companies have received more than $66 million in Cosmos contracts since 2009, records show. The total doesn't include cost overruns or smaller jobs they might have been awarded.
…In response to an open records request, Cosmos provided no criteria used to rank the five firms or information about how such criteria was weighted, saying simply that the contract was awarded to the lowest bidder.
Gulen's influence - Some of Harmony's harshest critics point to somewhat opaque connections between the charter operator and Gulen, a charismatic religious leader from Turkey who espouses religious tolerance and a moderate brand of Islam from his self-imposed Pennsylvania exile. Tarim laughed a little when asked about the relationship between Harmony and Gulen, which he said is nonexistent.
“We get asked this question many, many times,” he said, waving off any connection. “We continue to tell people (there is no tie).” But some former Harmony board members have been involved with the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue, a Houston-based organization with branches in San Antonio and other cities that takes its inspiration from Gulen.
One of those men, Harmony founder Yetkin Yildirim, told the New York Times earlier this year that he has been influenced by Gulen. Yildirim helped Tarim start the charter schools after recognizing a laxity in America's math and science education…
Two networks: Harmony opened three new campuses in Texas this school year and is on track to enroll 24,000 children by the end of 2012, according to Tarim.
The Cosmos Foundation also provides management services to other charter networks. Tarim said Cosmos consults with the School of Science and Technology, a small San Antonio-based charter network run by a nonprofit called the Riverwalk Education Foundation. “We provided help as to how to establish a program,” Tarim explained.
Though Cosmos and Riverwalk have separate boards, others referenced a closer tie between the two organizations, referring to their campuses as “sister” schools.
The charter networks contract with several of the same businesses, and students and staff seem to frequently move from one organization to another.
Opposition to Harmony, mostly from the conservative, grass-roots Eagle Forum, nearly plunged the state Legislature into a second special session earlier this year after a small group of Republicans voted down a must-pass bill. The legislation included a provision to use money for state public schools to guarantee charter school bonds, potentially saving the Cosmos Foundation tens of millions thanks to lower interest rates.
The conservative legislators switched their votes only after striking a compromise that included a resolution to conduct a House investigation of all of the state's charter schools. Not part of that probe, the TEA has spent the past several months conducting an audit of roughly $540,000 in “inadequately documented” federal grant funds received by the Cosmos Foundation, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said…
Database Editor Kelly Guckian and News Researchers Kevin Frazzini and Julie Domel contributed to this report.
Underneath the excerpts from the San Antonio Express-News article, I have posted my piece (12.9.11 – “Gulen-Inspired Schools Under Fire”) in which I have included numerous links that tie this whole network of Turkish charter schools together under Fethullah Gulen, an Islamist imam.
On 7.29.11, the Gulenists overthrew Turkey’s previous military leaders and are now instigating Sharia law in that country. This same pattern of step-by-step indoctrination by the Turkish Gulenists is undoubtedly occurring in our own country under the guise of these Turkish charter schools that ironically are using our taxpayers’ dollars to do it.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Harmony-schools-causing-discord-2435402.php
Harmony schools causing discord - By Lindsay Kastner, lkastner@express-news.net
Updated 12:17 a.m., Sunday, January 1, 2012 Excerpts from this article:
The 36 schools that make up the Harmony charter school network are among the highest-rated in Texas.
But despite its glowing academic record, Harmony has received a flurry of criticism for its business practices.
In particular, the charter network's reliance on visas for Turkish-born staff and use of Turkish-owned businesses for construction and other contracts has raised questions about how it spends taxpayer money and whether it is too insular.
In just more than a decade, Harmony Public Schools, operated by the Cosmos Foundation of Houston, has grown to become one of the largest charter school networks in Texas, serving about 16,700 students last school year. Two schools, with about 900 students last year, are in San Antonio. Some Harmony critics point to a burgeoning number of Turkish-American-led charter networks in the United States, more than 120 in 25 states, that they say are tied to Islamic political leader Fethullah Gulen…
From 2008 to 2010, the Labor Department certified 1,197 H-1B visa requests from the Cosmos Foundation — more than double the number of visas certified nationwide for Texas-based computer company Dell USA and about 70 percent as many as were certified for tech giant Apple Inc. …The visas are intended to attract foreign workers with skills that are in short supply among American workers.
Harmony has about 290 employees working on H-1B visas, or 16 percent of its workforce, according to Superintendent Soner Tarim. Most are Turkish, said Tarim, who is also from Turkey. Few other Texas school districts hire significant numbers of workers on H-1B visas.
“Staffing Northside schools has never really been a problem,” said Pascual Gonzalez, spokesman for Bexar County's largest school district with 97,000 students, where Labor Department records show no H-1B visa certifications in recent years. “In the past there have been thousands of people applying for hundreds of jobs.”
At Harmony, Tarim said the charter network finds a shortage of qualified teachers in math, science and English as a second language sometimes prompts them to hire foreign workers. He noted that Harmony's focus on science and math means particularly high recruiting standards in those areas. …Nearly a third of the H-1B certifications received by Cosmos actually were for jobs outside those fields, however.
…Some students say they have trouble understanding foreign-born teachers. “One of our teachers ... is Turkish,” sixth-grader Noah Nabers volunteered. “And it's kind of hard to understand him.”
...Like most charter school operators, Harmony's first schools opened in former stores and spaces leased from churches. Harmony still operates some storefront campuses, but over time began to build its own schools using money from the sale of public bonds.
Tarim bristled at the implication that the charter network was giving much of its work to a closed circle of Turkish-owned businesses. …eight of the charter network's 10 largest contracts have gone to just two companies, both of which have close ties to Cosmos: the Houston-based contracting firms Solidarity Contracting and TDM Contracting.
Solidarity is run by a former Harmony school business manager, according to a report by the New York Times. TDM was formed a couple of years ago by a former Solidarity employee. Together, the two young companies have received more than $66 million in Cosmos contracts since 2009, records show. The total doesn't include cost overruns or smaller jobs they might have been awarded.
…In response to an open records request, Cosmos provided no criteria used to rank the five firms or information about how such criteria was weighted, saying simply that the contract was awarded to the lowest bidder.
Gulen's influence - Some of Harmony's harshest critics point to somewhat opaque connections between the charter operator and Gulen, a charismatic religious leader from Turkey who espouses religious tolerance and a moderate brand of Islam from his self-imposed Pennsylvania exile. Tarim laughed a little when asked about the relationship between Harmony and Gulen, which he said is nonexistent.
“We get asked this question many, many times,” he said, waving off any connection. “We continue to tell people (there is no tie).” But some former Harmony board members have been involved with the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue, a Houston-based organization with branches in San Antonio and other cities that takes its inspiration from Gulen.
One of those men, Harmony founder Yetkin Yildirim, told the New York Times earlier this year that he has been influenced by Gulen. Yildirim helped Tarim start the charter schools after recognizing a laxity in America's math and science education…
Two networks: Harmony opened three new campuses in Texas this school year and is on track to enroll 24,000 children by the end of 2012, according to Tarim.
The Cosmos Foundation also provides management services to other charter networks. Tarim said Cosmos consults with the School of Science and Technology, a small San Antonio-based charter network run by a nonprofit called the Riverwalk Education Foundation. “We provided help as to how to establish a program,” Tarim explained.
Though Cosmos and Riverwalk have separate boards, others referenced a closer tie between the two organizations, referring to their campuses as “sister” schools.
The charter networks contract with several of the same businesses, and students and staff seem to frequently move from one organization to another.
Opposition to Harmony, mostly from the conservative, grass-roots Eagle Forum, nearly plunged the state Legislature into a second special session earlier this year after a small group of Republicans voted down a must-pass bill. The legislation included a provision to use money for state public schools to guarantee charter school bonds, potentially saving the Cosmos Foundation tens of millions thanks to lower interest rates.
The conservative legislators switched their votes only after striking a compromise that included a resolution to conduct a House investigation of all of the state's charter schools. Not part of that probe, the TEA has spent the past several months conducting an audit of roughly $540,000 in “inadequately documented” federal grant funds received by the Cosmos Foundation, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said…
Database Editor Kelly Guckian and News Researchers Kevin Frazzini and Julie Domel contributed to this report.
HOW MANY VISA'S DO THEY APPLY FOR EACH YEAR?
Friday, July 23, 2010 Gulen schools and their booming H1B visa applications This entry has also been posted at Charter School Scandals.Consider the following (based on the list Top 100 H1b Visa Sponsors In Secondary School Education Since 2008 appearing on 7/23/2010):
- The Gulen schools and their related organizations account for 31.5% of all H1B visa applications requested by the top 100 secondary school education H1B visa sponsors. (Table 1)
- Of the top 100 secondary school education H1B visa sponsors, 34 of the 100 sponsors were Gulen schools or their related organizations.
- A total of 4277 visas were requested by the top 100 sponsors.
- 1349 of the 4277 applications were submitted by Gulen schools or their related organizations.
- There were fewer than 100 U.S. schools in this subterranean network of schools operated by Gulen movement missionaries in this same year. Read about the characteristics of these schools here.
- The Cosmos Foundation, which operates approximately 27 Gulen schools in Texas, ranked #1 with 521 visa applications. These schools are heavily, but not exclusively, staffed with Turkish and Turkic teachers. The administrators and founders are nearly exclusively Turkish males.
- To contrast, Global Teachers Research Resources (a teacher headhunting organization) ranked #2 with 325 visa applications. GTRR’s newsletters reveal a wide range of teacher nationalities.
- Further investigation is likely to reveal that close to 100% of the visa applications of the Gulen schools and their related organizations will be for individuals from Turkey.
- Public school districts also applied for visas. In fact, seven of the top-20 largest school districts in the country were also top-100 sponsors for visa applications. These seven districts represent nearly 2,900,000 students attending approximately 3,831 schools. (Table 2)
- When averaged, seven of the top-20 largest school districts in the country submitted one H1B visa application for every 6.2 schools.
- The average number of visa applications for the Gulen schools was 13.5 H1B visa applications per school!
Just who is monitoring our Charter Schools as to funding and curriculum???
Notice Gulen at the top but there are NO Gulen Schools!
These are publicly-funded charter schools run by the Gulen Movement in Florida, all members of Grace Schools, a.k.a. Grace Institute. The Fulton Science Academy elementary, middle and high schools, Gulen charter schools in Georgia, are the only other Grace members. Similar to all other Gulen charter schools, Grace schools exploit the H-1B visa system to hire personnel.
The affiliation of these schools with the Gulen Movement is shown by their participation in the Turkish Olympiads, the ISWEEEP science fair in Houston, and the Jacksonville and Orlando Turkish Festivals, all events run by the Gulen Movement.
The schools also have Turkish clubs and Turkish Olympiad Camps. The website of the Turkish Cultural Center of Tampa Bay, a Gulenist organization, states that "Turkish has been offered as an elective for middle and high school students in the State curriculum of Florida and Georgia in the last two years with the efforts of these centers." The centers referred to here are Turkish Cultural Centers in the Southeast run by the Gulen Movement. This shows how the Gulen Movement is influencing school curricula as part of its efforts to promote the Turkish language and Turkish nationalism (e.g., students participating in the Turkish Language Olympics are provided with elaborate Turkish costumes to wear). Note that Ethnologue lists Turkish as 21st in its list of languages ranked by number of speakers - to give some examples, Bengali, Vietnamese and Korean all rank higher.
Tax records from 2008 show that the "Sema Education Agency" loaned $520,000 to New Springs Charter School. Sema is a Gulenist organization that also loaned a substantial amount to Fulton Science Academy and later forgave half the amount. Tax records from 2008 show that board members of Neosprings, Inc dba Sweetwater Branch Academy, the charter holder for Sweetwater, loaned the school a principal amount of $28,000, but the school was required to pay back $53,000. Given that the middle/high school has only existed since 2008, this implies an exceptionally high rate of return on the loan.
A school field trip to Atlanta included a visit to the Istanbul Center, a Gulenist organization that promotes Turkish culture and sponsors Gulenist Turkey trips.
Students and parents at Orlando Science Middle/High School are offered Gulenist trips to Turkey at discounted prices. Students get an additional 20% discount, from the Orlando Turkish Cultural Center, a Gulenist organization, if their "GPA is over 85."
Students from Orlando Science Middle/High School participated in a summer program in Turkey that included activities at a private Gulen school in the Turkish town of Tavsanli. Students from Fulton Science Academy, a Gulen charter school in Georgia, also studied at this school as part of a summer program. The school (Ozel Basari Ilkogretim Okulu) was found at one point to have a Facebook page with references to Gulen and multiple religious references. A group of 16 Orlando Science students, accompanied by two Gulenist teachers, also studied at the Ozel Birgivi Koleji, another private Gulen school in Turkey.
The affiliation of these schools with the Gulen Movement is shown by their participation in the Turkish Olympiads, the ISWEEEP science fair in Houston, and the Jacksonville and Orlando Turkish Festivals, all events run by the Gulen Movement.
The schools also have Turkish clubs and Turkish Olympiad Camps. The website of the Turkish Cultural Center of Tampa Bay, a Gulenist organization, states that "Turkish has been offered as an elective for middle and high school students in the State curriculum of Florida and Georgia in the last two years with the efforts of these centers." The centers referred to here are Turkish Cultural Centers in the Southeast run by the Gulen Movement. This shows how the Gulen Movement is influencing school curricula as part of its efforts to promote the Turkish language and Turkish nationalism (e.g., students participating in the Turkish Language Olympics are provided with elaborate Turkish costumes to wear). Note that Ethnologue lists Turkish as 21st in its list of languages ranked by number of speakers - to give some examples, Bengali, Vietnamese and Korean all rank higher.
Tax records from 2008 show that the "Sema Education Agency" loaned $520,000 to New Springs Charter School. Sema is a Gulenist organization that also loaned a substantial amount to Fulton Science Academy and later forgave half the amount. Tax records from 2008 show that board members of Neosprings, Inc dba Sweetwater Branch Academy, the charter holder for Sweetwater, loaned the school a principal amount of $28,000, but the school was required to pay back $53,000. Given that the middle/high school has only existed since 2008, this implies an exceptionally high rate of return on the loan.
A school field trip to Atlanta included a visit to the Istanbul Center, a Gulenist organization that promotes Turkish culture and sponsors Gulenist Turkey trips.
Students and parents at Orlando Science Middle/High School are offered Gulenist trips to Turkey at discounted prices. Students get an additional 20% discount, from the Orlando Turkish Cultural Center, a Gulenist organization, if their "GPA is over 85."
Students from Orlando Science Middle/High School participated in a summer program in Turkey that included activities at a private Gulen school in the Turkish town of Tavsanli. Students from Fulton Science Academy, a Gulen charter school in Georgia, also studied at this school as part of a summer program. The school (Ozel Basari Ilkogretim Okulu) was found at one point to have a Facebook page with references to Gulen and multiple religious references. A group of 16 Orlando Science students, accompanied by two Gulenist teachers, also studied at the Ozel Birgivi Koleji, another private Gulen school in Turkey.
FBI INVESTIGATING GULEN CHARTER SCHOOLS
Charter schools operated by the Turkish Gulen movement, which have been springing up across the US, are under investigation by the FBI and departments of Labor and Education, an in-depth report published by the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday detailed.
The investigations are centered on whether some charter school employees are kicking back of their salaries to the Gulen movement, which is led by a Turkish exile Fathulah Gulen, an Islamist political figure, who is in crosshairs with Turkish Prime Minister Recept Tayyip Erdogan and has been living in Pennsylvania after being granted asylum by the US. The federal probe also centers on the large number of H1B visas being requested for Gulen-run school teachers and staff, whereby local teachers are passed up for those imported from Turkey.
“The schools are funded with millions of taxpayer dollars. Truebright alone receives more than $3 million from the Philadelphia School District for its 348 pupils. Tansu Cidav, the acting chief executive officer, described it as a regular public school,” reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Gulen schools are among the nation’s largest users of the H1B visas. In 2009, the schools received government approvals for 684 visas – more than Google Inc. (440) but fewer than a technology powerhouse such as Intel Corp. (1,203),” added the Inquirer article.
Gulen runs charter schools in Ohio, California, Texas, Arizona, Utah and other states. Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District granted a charter to the Gulen-affiliated Magnolia School in North Hollywood and portion of Birmingham High School in Van Nuys.
In 2010, a group of parents in Tucson, Arizona, appealed to the local school board with concerns that the charter school affiliated with the Gulen movement was “part of a confederation of learning institutions secretly linked to, and advancing, the cause of Turkish scholar and Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen,” according the Tucson Weekly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my research is have found several blog comments against the Gulen schools but nothing positive. Many complain about them bringing Turkish teachers over here which they do not have to pay putting American teachers out of work. Complaints about the students having to learn Turkish and all the trips to Turkey in the summers. I do believe they are not personally funded Gulen schools but funded in part by the Dulen Foundation.
I checked out one school in Florida and found for 6th graders:
- Social Studies prepares the students to contribute to our democratic society.
- They are required to take one semester of Spanish and one semester of Turkish
- If a student is not up to par and cannot take those language classes then they are scheduled to take Reading classes. There is no literature taught
- Science tests are done through a program called FAST - Foundational Approaches in Science Teaching
- Math classes follow a nationall acclaimed (??) math curriculum: The Connected Mathematics Program (CMP2). For below level students (and it does not state what that is) they use their own modified curriculum. They state all their math curricula is aligned with Florida Sunshine Standards.
The investigations are centered on whether some charter school employees are kicking back of their salaries to the Gulen movement, which is led by a Turkish exile Fathulah Gulen, an Islamist political figure, who is in crosshairs with Turkish Prime Minister Recept Tayyip Erdogan and has been living in Pennsylvania after being granted asylum by the US. The federal probe also centers on the large number of H1B visas being requested for Gulen-run school teachers and staff, whereby local teachers are passed up for those imported from Turkey.
“The schools are funded with millions of taxpayer dollars. Truebright alone receives more than $3 million from the Philadelphia School District for its 348 pupils. Tansu Cidav, the acting chief executive officer, described it as a regular public school,” reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“Gulen schools are among the nation’s largest users of the H1B visas. In 2009, the schools received government approvals for 684 visas – more than Google Inc. (440) but fewer than a technology powerhouse such as Intel Corp. (1,203),” added the Inquirer article.
Gulen runs charter schools in Ohio, California, Texas, Arizona, Utah and other states. Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District granted a charter to the Gulen-affiliated Magnolia School in North Hollywood and portion of Birmingham High School in Van Nuys.
In 2010, a group of parents in Tucson, Arizona, appealed to the local school board with concerns that the charter school affiliated with the Gulen movement was “part of a confederation of learning institutions secretly linked to, and advancing, the cause of Turkish scholar and Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen,” according the Tucson Weekly.
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In my research is have found several blog comments against the Gulen schools but nothing positive. Many complain about them bringing Turkish teachers over here which they do not have to pay putting American teachers out of work. Complaints about the students having to learn Turkish and all the trips to Turkey in the summers. I do believe they are not personally funded Gulen schools but funded in part by the Dulen Foundation.
I checked out one school in Florida and found for 6th graders:
- Social Studies prepares the students to contribute to our democratic society.
- They are required to take one semester of Spanish and one semester of Turkish
- If a student is not up to par and cannot take those language classes then they are scheduled to take Reading classes. There is no literature taught
- Science tests are done through a program called FAST - Foundational Approaches in Science Teaching
- Math classes follow a nationall acclaimed (??) math curriculum: The Connected Mathematics Program (CMP2). For below level students (and it does not state what that is) they use their own modified curriculum. They state all their math curricula is aligned with Florida Sunshine Standards.
Gulen's educational philosophy and Gulen schools
A religious-based educational philosophy is one of Gulen’s primary themes; he has very specific notions about the way in which children should be instructed in schools, some of which are described in “The Educational Philosophy of Fethullah Gülen and Its Application in South Africa."
In 1982, Gulen's devotees started the first Gulen schools in Turkey. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, members of the movement were then able to migrate to the countries in Central Asia (Turkic regions which were once ruled by the Ottoman Empire) and start more schools. These schools have since come under increased scrutiny for their spread of pan-Turkic ideas. The movement continued to expand and, at this point, hundreds of private schools in many countries on other continents have been opened. Local residents usually refer to them as the "Turkish schools."
In about 1999, the first Gulen charter school was opened in Ohio. Since that time, Turk-run charter schools have been opened in 27 states. Additional attempts have been made in other states. These schools are founded and operated by Turkish immigrants (male scientists and businessmen) who can often be tied to the American Gulenist organizations. An unusually strong pattern of similarities in their establishment and operation indicates that these schools are likely the U.S. members of the larger network of international Gulen schools, however the operators of the schools are extremely reluctant to discuss Gulen, the Gulen Movement, or Gulen's approach to education. Sometimes they will admit that the schools are "Gulen-inspired." Unlike the schools which follow the Waldorf education philosophy proudly do, these schools do not mention their connection to Gulen's educational philosophy. It is never volunteered to the public, or mentioned on the web sites or in the charter school petitions. Readers may wish to contemplate possible reasons for this.
A religious-based educational philosophy is one of Gulen’s primary themes; he has very specific notions about the way in which children should be instructed in schools, some of which are described in “The Educational Philosophy of Fethullah Gülen and Its Application in South Africa."
In 1982, Gulen's devotees started the first Gulen schools in Turkey. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, members of the movement were then able to migrate to the countries in Central Asia (Turkic regions which were once ruled by the Ottoman Empire) and start more schools. These schools have since come under increased scrutiny for their spread of pan-Turkic ideas. The movement continued to expand and, at this point, hundreds of private schools in many countries on other continents have been opened. Local residents usually refer to them as the "Turkish schools."
In about 1999, the first Gulen charter school was opened in Ohio. Since that time, Turk-run charter schools have been opened in 27 states. Additional attempts have been made in other states. These schools are founded and operated by Turkish immigrants (male scientists and businessmen) who can often be tied to the American Gulenist organizations. An unusually strong pattern of similarities in their establishment and operation indicates that these schools are likely the U.S. members of the larger network of international Gulen schools, however the operators of the schools are extremely reluctant to discuss Gulen, the Gulen Movement, or Gulen's approach to education. Sometimes they will admit that the schools are "Gulen-inspired." Unlike the schools which follow the Waldorf education philosophy proudly do, these schools do not mention their connection to Gulen's educational philosophy. It is never volunteered to the public, or mentioned on the web sites or in the charter school petitions. Readers may wish to contemplate possible reasons for this.
