In a nail-biter, the Texas State Board of Education turned down a request to authorize a Gulen-affiliated charter school by a vote of 8-5.
The applicant was Soner Tarim, who is leader of the Harmony Charter chain and applicant for a charter school called Woodlands Hills Charter School in rural Washington County in Alabama.
Gulen charter schools always deny that they are Gulen charter schools but they are typically led by Turkish men and have a board dominated by Turkish men and a large number of Turkish teachers who have visas.
Soner Tarim was hoping to start a new charter chain called Royal. After the state board turned down his request, he promised to appeal the rejection.
The Gulen charter chain is the second largest in the nation, after KIPP.
It is odd, don’t you think, to outsource community public schools to a foreign entity?
To learn more about the Gulen schools, see Mark Hall’s documentary “Killing Ed.”
To See a list of Gulen schools, see Oakland parent activist Sharon Higgins’ website.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
From what I’ve read about the Gulen schools and its mysterious founder, the CIA is involved in some way. Whatever the reason is why these Turkish schools are allowed to exist on the public dime while hurting real U.S. public schools, it isn’t good. I think it is linked to nation building in some way.
The leaders of the United States made a big mistake when they involved the country in nation building around the world, and it all started before the Vietnam War and continues to this day with a long string of total failures and a worse mess than the one that existed before it all started.
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It is hard to understand why the Gulen charter chain has even been allowed to exist. I am with you on our forays into nation building. It is more than embarrassing to examine our record.
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I remember reading an article a few years back which connected the Gulen chain to big money spent on curriculum/testing/materials contracts. Perhaps that is what matters most to those who look the other way?
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Gulen is shrouded in secrecy at American tax dollars. I wonder if a person needs “top secret security clearance” to work there?
Hmm…I smell lots of rats. Could this be why charter schools were and are “political” agendas?
And good for Texas.
This country better wake up and fast. This country is being run by agents of foreign powers.
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The same people who rail against Islam in general accept Gulen Schools, who are at least under the Guruship (invent a word) of an Islamic scholar. Sounds like the CIA to me.
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Nation-building has been around longer than I knew until a moment ago, and I’m sure the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies were aligned with that nation-building policy.
“The United States has conducted nation-building operations since 1898 and does so in a uniquely American way. Nation-building is the intervention in the affairs of a nation-state for the purpose of changing the state’s method of government and when the United States pursues these efforts there is one goal – democratization. Removing existing governments requires force, and history has shown that the Army is the force of choice. The story of America’s nation-building efforts starts with the Spanish-American War when the United States decided that Cuba and the Philippines should no longer be colonies of Spain. After defeating Spain in Cuba and routing their forces from the Philippines, the United States began nation-building efforts to establish democratic governments that were representative of the populace.”
Click to access carson.pdf
The problem here I think is how the U.S. defines what “democratization” really means from a corporate capitalist perspective. Does it really mean “to have the freedom to make a profit no matter what it takes or who suffers”?
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Unless I have my history wrong, CIA involvement in the Itallian election in the first part of the Marshall plan was its first attempt to swing a foreign election. Of course there was involvement in the Iranian affair that brought the Shah to power in 1954, I think. CIA stood for years for Cold War and America.
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So has KIPP surpassed Gulen in size since the making of Killing Ed? It’s noted to be the largest in the trailer, but above stated to be #2. And in what terms are we talking “largest” – # students? Budget? #schools? #teachers? Floor space? “Biggest” is a term that needs some clarification. Sort of like, I dunno, “excellence” or “the best”….
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That said, I have to agree the whole reality of Gulen’s existence is just bizarre and irrational, without some weird sort of wildcard-explanation like the CIA. Which is a cheap way of telling a story and yet….
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Gulen has about 165 schools and KIPP claims to have nearly 200.
The money keeps rolling in for KIPP expansion from the Waltons, the Fischer family, the US Department of Education, and other foundations. The Gulens have cultivated relationships with legislators in many states including Texas, Ohio, and Illinois. Before the 2016 failed coup in Turkey, Gulen used to send legislators on free trips to Turkey.
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ALL charter schools need to be SHUT DOWN.
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“Foreign entity”-not surprising. Globalist billionaires supersede democracies.
Tarim is a Pahara Fellow, an organization funded by Gates. The Dean of Ed. at the scandal-ridden private, University of Southern California is also a Pahara Fellow.
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By the way the STAAR results just were released. As usual they are of no instructional value. My grandson managed to “pass” this year, although about 31% of the students in his mostly poor, Latino school didn’t “pass” this year.
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No surprise there.
Of course the kids who have the fewest home resources get the lowest test scores.
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Rep. Cueller of Texas takes Koch money. His primary opponent is Jessica Cisceros, a Justice Democrat.
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