Donna Garner

TURKISH CHARTER SCHOOLS SUBJECT OF TEX. HOUSE PUBLIC ED -- 2.22.12

Blog Entry in Donna Garner's Blog

2.20.12 – Houston Chronicle – Posted by Gary Scharrer

Eagle Forum takes on Harmony charter schools

http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2012/02/eagle-forum-takes-on-harmony-charter-schools/

The Texas chapter of the Eagle Forum wants state lawmakers to pass legislation requiring all charter school operators to be U.S. citizens.

With 36 campuses, Harmony has become the state’s largest charter school system.

Thousands of American children are becoming sympathetic to the Turkish way of life,” MerryLynn Gerstenschlager told the House Public Education Committee last week.

She is vice president of the Eagle Forum, which is concerned about the influence of Turkish billionaire Fethullah Gulen, whom she cast as the driving force behind Harmony schools.

Gulen lives in Pennsylvania but controls Turkey TV stations and newspapers, Gerstenschlager told the committee. She also views him as someone who desires to turn Turkish government into an Islamist system.

“If Gulen’s control can reach across the seas to Turkey, how much easier would it be for him to ask allegiance from the impressionable children educated in Turkish charter schools within our borders?” she asked.

The New York Times looked at Texas’ Harmony charter schools in a story last year.

“The schools represented the expansion of a mission that had already created hundreds of schools — and a number of universities — in Turkey and around the world. According to social scientists who have studied them, these schools have been the primary vehicle for the aspirations of the Gulen movement, a loose network of several million followers of Mr. Gulen, who preaches the need to embrace modernity in a peace-loving, ecumenical version of Islam. At the center of his philosophy is the concept of “hizmet” — public service,” the newspaper reported.

House Public Education Committee members did not share the Eagle Forum’s concerns about Harmony charter schools.

Rep. Alma Allen, D-Houston, says she has “a large Turkish community in my district and several Harmony schools in my district. I think they are fabulous. I don’t think they teach religion.” [Rep. Alma Allen, who mentioned she had taken two trips to Turkey (undoubtedly paid for by the Cosmos Foundation), is listed as a member of the Harmony Charter School Advisory Board.]

Gerstenschlager quickly emphasized she was not asserting that Harmony Schools inject religion into the classroom instruction.

“I have read stellar things about their academic performance. I never said they taught religion,” she said.

Allen told Gerstenschlager she should “underscore ‘stellar,’” and said she has visited Turkey twice.

“It’s beautiful. You should go. I will take you,” the lawmaker said.

Gerstenschlager said she visited Turkey in 1999 [actually 1996] for a U. N. conference and acknowledged that it’s a wonderful country.

But she brought up a recent Republican presidential debate where a questioner referred to an attempt to radicalize Turkish government with Islamism and noted the country’s prime minister supports Hamas.

“Why are millions of our tax dollars paying Turkish men to operate charter schools in our own backyard when Turkey has become so oppressive? Gerstenschlager asked.

Rep. Mark Shelton, R-Fort Worth, told Gerstenschlager the Harmony charter school in his district is immensely popular.

“They are lining up trying to get into that school. Parents are thrilled. I am just not hearing anyone saying that there’s some problem in the school related to the issues you are talking about,” the physician-lawmaker told her.

She repeated her standard refrain: “They are learning Turkish culture, and I believe these impressionable young children will become sympathetic to Turkey.”

There are now about 150 such charter schools in the United States, she said.

“We should be aware of what’s happening within our borders. Children are being exposed to Turkish culture. That’s great. It’s a lovely country; lovely people,” Gerstenschlager said. “However, they don’t have America’s best interests in mind right now.”

But there doesn’t appear to be any movement among Texas lawmakers to pass a law as the Michigan Legislature did last year requiring charter school operators to be U.S. citizens.

A spokeswoman for Harmony charter schools says the Eagle Forum improperly links their schools with Gulen.

Harmony Public Schools are owned and operated by the Cosmos Foundation, a 501C3 non-profit set up within the state of Texas, says Jenifer Sarver, who emphasized that there is no connection between Harmony Public schools and Gulen, “so it is 100 percent factually inaccurate to report that he is the driving force behind Harmony schools.”

There are 20,000 Texas children being educated by Harmony currently with another 30,000 on the wait list, Sarver said, noting that Harmony Science Academy in Houston made U.S. News & World Report’s as one of the best high schools .

When learning of the Eagle Forum’s sharp criticism after the hearing, Sarver said, “The attacks on Harmony are xenophobic and made by a small group with extreme voices.”

And Allen, the Houston lawmaker, got in the last word during the public hearing.

“I am just dumbfounded,” she said. “Of all the cultures.. I don’t know why we single out Turkey. I think the Turkish culture is wonderful. I hope they open up more schools.”

[The Gulen Schools frequently pay for elected officials to go to Turkey as a public relations method of making them feel indebted, thus garnering their support when they return to the states. Undoubtedly, Rep. Alma Allen’s two trips to Turkey were paid for by the Gulen Charter Schools. Merry Lynn Gerstenschlager stated she had also been to Turkey – in 1996 – but was careful to say that she had paid for her trip herself. – Donna Garner]

Comments by Donna Garner – 2.22.12:

Please listen to the short testimonies by Merry Lynn Gerstenschlager and Peyton Wolcott at the Texas House Committee on Public Education, Feb. 17, 2012. Both women verbalized their concerns over the Turkish-Gulen-Cosmos Foundation-Harmony Charter Schools and both advocated for the legislature to require operators of all charter schools (including the Turkish-Gulen-Cosmos Foundation-Harmony Charter Schools) to be U. S. citizens just as board members of local public schools are required to be U. S. citizens.

Ms. Wolcott also brought out the fact that Rep. Alma Allen, who mentioned she had taken two trips to Turkey (probably trips paid for by the Cosmos Foundation), is listed as a member of the Harmony Charter School Advisory Board.

Link to broadcast: http://www.house.state.tx.us/video-audio/committee-broadcasts/committee-archives/player/?session=82&committee=400&ram=12021711400

Merry Lynn Gerstenschlager – testimony starting at marker 3:50:51

Peyton Wolcott – testimony starting at marker 4:03:10

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“Harmony Science Academies Tied to Gulen Charter Schools”

by Donna Garner

3.1.11

Here is the documentation to show that the Harmony Science Academies in Texas are directly tied to the Gulen Movement. We always need to bear in mind that Fethullah Gulen is an Islamist imam:

1. Guidestar -- Cosmos Foundation, Texas (a.k.a., Harmony Public Schools -- http://www2.guidestar.org/organizations/76-0615245/cosmos-foundation.aspx

Cosmos Foundation is the management company for Harmony Science Academies, and the CFO of Cosmos is Umit Pecen; he attends the funding board meetings with Sonar Tarim.

(Please see http://harmonyparenttruth.blogspot.com/2011/01/harmony-science-academy-charter-school_18.html to learn more about Umit Pecen.)

(Please go to http://www.chroniclewatch.com/2010/06/21/islamic-movement-engulfs-lone-star-state/ to learn more about Sonar Tarim.)

2. Oct. 7, 2010 -- Dr. Helen Rose Ebaugh -- “Mapping the Gulen Movement” -- Professor of Sociology, University of Houston -- Please slide the marker to 11:52 where Dr. Ebaugh says there are 25 Gulen charter schools in Texas (a.k.a., Cosmos Foundation -- Harmony Science Academies). If these are not the Harmony Science Academies, to what other schools is she referring? Obviously she means the Harmony Science Academies and that they are Gulen schools.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJmldzfD884&feature=related

In Dr. Ebaugh’s remarks, she stated that she had traveled to Turkey to study the Gulen Movement; and she learned that after Gulen investors put up the capital for the Gulen schools for a couple of years, the schools operate on their own.

This should be the same model used in the United States. If individual citizens want to put up the money for the Harmony Science Academies to get them started, that would be a matter to be decided in the private sector; but we taxpayers should not have our tax dollars used to pay for any schools that are tied to the Muslim movement.

3. PBS, “The Gulen Movement,” Jan. 25, 2011: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-21-2011/gulen-movement/7949/

Excerpts from this website:

SEVERSON: Gülen-inspired volunteers from Turkey bring Turkish language and culture with them. In Houston they sponsor a Turkish Olympiad where American students compete in Turkish dance and song. The winners compete in an annual competition in Ankara, Turkey. There are more than a 1000 Gülen-inspired schools and universities in over 100 countries...

SEVERSON: In Texas there are 33 nationally recognized public charter schools with over 16,000 students grades K through 12. They’re called Harmony schools, and the Turkish superintendent insists they are strictly secular and in no way connected to Gülen. [As shown in Points #1 and #2, the Harmony Science Academies most certainly are Gulen schools. -- Donna Garner] Professor Ebaugh says there’s a reason for this kind of sensitivity. [Dr. Ebaugh has stated publicly that she believes the Gulen charter schools in the United States should be more forthcoming about their links to him and to Turkey because she does not believe they have anything to hide. -- Donna Garner]

(4) Students in the Gulen schools celebrate various Turkish Muslim holidays, and students frequently win trips to Turkey.

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5.30.11 – Harmony Science Academy, Cosmos Foundation: Evidence of Affiliation with the Gulen Movement -- http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/harmony-science-academy-cosmos-foundation.html

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6.7.11 – “Major Investigation of Gulen Charter Schools by New York Times” --

http://libertylinked.com/posts/7479/breaking-new-york-times-does/View.aspx

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6.19.11 – “Some Lawmakers Have Second Thoughts About Turkey Trips” -- http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/some-lawmakers-have-second-thoughts-about-turkey-trips-1548440.html

6.29.11 – “Texas Legislature To Launch Investigation of Charter Schools” --- http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/06/29/texas-legislature-to-launch-investigation-of-charter-schools/#.TguYfORvED4.twitter

7.10.11 – “Are Taxpayers Paying for Free Trips to Turkey?” – by Donna Garner --

http://libertylinked.com/posts/7714/are-taxpayers-paying-for-free/View.aspx

8.1.11 -- “Gulen-Led Coup -- Turkey Falls to Islamists" by Donna Garner --