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Lawyer Robert Amsterdam was hired by the Republic of Turkey to investigate the Gulen charter school movement in the United States. The Turkish government is headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is engaged in political struggle with Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is a cleric who lives in seclusion in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The Turkish government is Islamic, and Gulen ...

Charter schools associated with the Gulen movement are found in many states. They have many different names, like Magnolia, Harmony, Sonoran and more. There are more than 150 of them. If asked, they always deny that they are Gulen schools. The best source for identifying Gulen schools is the list of names compiled by Oakland parent activist Sharon Higgins.

There isn’t much Turkey wouldn’t do to go after Fethullah Gulen, the controversial cleric Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for a failed coup in 2016.  Last fall, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Turkish officials reportedly considered going beyond trying to convince the U.S. to extradite Gulen, who lives in exile in Pennsylvania: ...

A chain of Texas charter schools linked to the movement of U.S.-based Turkish preacher Fetullah Gulen is being accused of fraud and financial malfeasance worth over $18 million. Amsterdam & Partners, a law firm investigating the movement's activities, has filed a fraud complaint with the Texas Education Agency, the firm said in a statement late ...

DALLAS—The state of Texas has launched an investigation into alleged fiscal improprieties at the state’s largest chain of charter schools. Behind the probe: charges by the president of Turkey that the schools are part of a $500 million a year front to fund the revolutionary aspirations of a Turkish cleric he claims backed a recent failed ...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's state-run news agency says prosecutors have issued warrants for the detention of more than 150 military officers, teachers and trade unionists, as authorities press ahead with a clampdown against a network led by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.Anadolu Agency said Friday that detention warrants were issued for 16 navy officers — all of whom ...

You may recall the Livermore Charter Schools in Livermore, California. In August, some 500 students fled the charters and returned to the public schools in the district.  Now the company that runs the charter schools has filed for Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy proceedings. This enables them to default on their bonds and save money while they ...

Lawyers working for the Turkish government plan to file a complaint with the Texas Education Agency next week against Houston-based Harmony Public Schools, alleging financial malfeasance and other misconduct, school officials said.  The Republic of Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is waging a well-documented war against critics, hiredLondon-based Amsterdam &...

Here’s proof that the world is shrinking. Followers of Fethullah Gulen, the reculsive imam who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of masterminding this month’s failed coup attempt, are being rounded up by the tens of thousands across Turkey. Erdogan, an increasingly autocratic figure, has likened the Gulenists to “a tumor” within ...

Much discussion and questions have continued for some time surrounding Harmony Schools. We have been following this issue and thought you might find it of interest. There is an Islamic scholar named Fethullah Gulen who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania and who has inspired a network said to include more than 160 charter schools in the United States.

In which Gary Miron and I discuss various methods by which charter school operators work largely within existing policy constraints, to achieve financial gain. While working on this report, I explored various other topics that did not make the final cut, in part because I was then, and continue to have difficulty gathering sufficient information. The other day, however this ...

This past summer I had opportunity to visit the Hawkins community schools in Los Angeles. What I haven’t talked about publicly is that I also was also invited to visit Magnolia Science Academy 3 (MSA3)   which is co-located at Curtiss Middle School in Carson California during the same trip. The Magnolia charters are ...

Recent documentary film on Gülenist charter schools in the United States has been ignored by local media and Texas state film festivals where the charter schools in question are located. A recent article by writer Anna Clark in the Huffington Post says though the film was well received in other states, it was "passed over by Texas' four ...

The international law firm of Amsterdam & Partners filed on Tuesday a formal complaint against Gülenist Harmony Public Schools (Harmony) in Texas, U.S., urging the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to investigate document abuses for fraud, discrimination, and abuse in the Harmony network.  The Gülenist Harmony school network is reportedly financed by over $250 million federal ...

The ruling Justice and Development Party's foreign affairs branch in coordination with the Foreign Ministry will send letters to senior officials in 50 countries to brief them about the illegal activities of Gülenists and urge them to close schools run by "terrorist" Gülenists, Daily Sabah reports.

Two months after a formal complaint against Gülenist Harmony Public Schools in Texas was filed, The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has decided to take the matter into its own hands to see if the charter school network has misused federal and state funds via its ties to the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ) led by Fethullah ...