60 Minutes is reporting right now, that the largest charter school company in the US. Heck the world is run by Fethullah Gulen. 60 Minutes says:
Gulen is the Turkish Islamic cleric at the center of a popular and growing movement, with millions of disciples who follow his teachings of tolerance, interfaith dialogue, and education. Some have even started a chain of successful charter schools here in the U.S., with an emphasis on math and science. Yet Gulen himself remains shrouded in mystery. Lesley Stahl travels from Turkey to Texas to report on how the movement is spreading, and on the man behind it all.
[....]
This is the Harmony School in Houston, part of a rapidly expanding chain of 36 charter schools in Texas. They serve mostly underprivileged students and they all emphasize math and science.
There are more than 130 in the US. They teach no religion. The founder, Gulen, has said if you want to convert people to his faith you shouldn't build mosques, you should build schools and teach science and math.
A little more below the fold.
I don't even know what to think about this. First, as a public school kid, I like public schools. His Charter schools get tax payer dollars, which I am not a fan of.
As the report starts it seems like these schools are in fact kind of wonderful.
But of course nothing is ever this simple. It appears there might be some immigration fraud. That teachers from the Middle East, Muslims are brought in to fire American born teachers. That for their Visas these teachers have to kick back money to Gulen.
Again, I don't even know what to think, so I will end with I have a feeling this is going to blow up the Internet on right wing blogs. I mean who knew the largest Charter School system in the country, and don't Republicans love Charter Schools, is owned and run by a Islamic cleric.
UPDATE: I missed this when I watched the segment for the first time, cause I was typing this. A teacher in Cleveland lost her job to one of these schools. She eventually married a Turkish teacher that came over on one of their visas. She says (and she has the documents) that he had to kick-back 40% of this paycheck. Ouch.