Radical Turkish Islamists Control Over 150 U.S. Charter Schools

The U.S. Congress has officially replaced the No Child Left Behind law with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which will eventually provide federal funding to expand the presence of charter schools in America.

Unlike other schools, charter schools are funded by the public but operated privately, sometimes as a for-profit school. They are not under control of education departments, so these schools are free to hire and fire teachers and administrators as they see fit.

In 2008, Andy Smarick, a Thomas Fordham Institute fellow, announced a vision to replace every urban public school with a charter school, and since this time, the number of charter schools has grown rapidly.

Many foreign nationals are attracted to charter schools because it allows them to run American schools while being supported by taxpayers’ dollars. Some of these nationals include Turkish investors with ties to Fethullah Gulen, a radical Islamist and multi-billionaire who is at the top of the largest chain of U.S. charter schools.  He is known to be pushing radical Islam in a number of ways in the U.S., and is a man whom the FBI has attempted to take down but cannot touch.

The Gulen Movement, a religious group headed by Gulen with Turkish origins, now has over 150 charter schools to its name in 26 different states. The staff of these schools are typically Turkish males, with many teachers and employees brought in from Turkry on H-1B guest worker visas.

In October 2015, it was discovered that almost 20 of these schools were being investigated for a number of issues including illegal hiring practices, money management, improper visa issues and illegal kickbacks.

To get an idea of how much money these Turkish schools are making, look no further than the Cosmos Foundation which under the name of Harmony Schools has received more than $100 million in taxpayer funds.

These schools preach that their mission is to “teach tens of thousands of people the Turkish language and our national anthem, introduce them to our culture and win them over.” Parents of these schools’ students have complained that the schools rely too heavily on teaching a love of Turkey and Islam. One teacher even complained that there is no separation between academic studies and the teachings of Islam within the schools, where children are led to participate in Muslim prayers.

Back in Turkey, Gulen has had an enormous impact on the transition of Turkey from democracy to jihadist nation. The Gulen network of schools, banks and businesses have led to most of this radicalization, and now this radical Islam way of life is spreading faster and faster into the United States.

America is falling victim to yet another attack on our freedom, and this one is within our school systems. The government needs to put an end to radical Islamists running our educational system and teaching a whole new generation of impressionable minds that Islam is the ideal religion.