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Title: Outrage! Americans Pay $1 Billion A Year for Shady Schools Ran by Radical Cleric Gulen
Published: 2017-12-16
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1mYTjRM718
Title: Outrage! Americans Pay $1 Billion A Year for Shady Schools Ran by Radical Cleric Gulen
Published: 2017-12-16
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1mYTjRM718
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Music Mark, we are standing in front of Harmony Science Academy Cedar Park. It just sounds very good. Sounds all good. Harmony, Harmony, Science Academy. This is one of 150 plus charter schools that is connected to Imam Fethullah-Gulant's network. Tell us about the Harmony charter schools here in the state of Texas. So just in the state of Texas, there are now 63 Harmony charter schools that are2/35
affiliated with Fethullah-Gulant's movement, the Hizmet. This is probably the last school that got built this opened in October. And this is a pre-K through 4th grade school that has several hundred students. All of these schools, the 63 that are now operating here in Texas, are funded by the taxpayers and the citizens of Texas. This is not a private school, but it's managed privately by members of3/35
Fethullah-Gulant's movement. Now, we know that we are looking at 150 to 180 schools. We see the highest concentration here in the state of Texas. And how did that come about? Well, the Gulen movement arrived in Texas roughly around 1999, 2000, when Fethullah-Gulant came from Turkey. He was being prosecuted for sedition trying to overthrow the Turkish state. So he came to the United States. His followers started4/35
opening up schools here in Texas, roughly 2000. I think they've come to Texas because this has been a perfect storm for the Gulen movement. Because the charter school movement in Texas is very, very strong. And you will find that politicians really believe that charter schools are some type of panacea or a way to improve our public schools. They've allowed these schools to grow without much oversight5/35
at all. When I first started shooting Killing Ed in 2011, they had 30 schools, roughly. They've doubled that. They have 63 now, just in the space of about six years. And they've also borrowed $645 million in state-guaranteed Texas bonds. So if these people get arrested, the Gulen movement from Turkey, if they're arrested by our government for any types of things, criminality, they have to leave the6/35
country, they're arrested. The state of Texas and the citizens of Texas will be responsible for that $645 million if there's a default. And they're now receiving because of their 63 schools in excess of $320 million each year in tax dollars from the citizens of Texas. On average, how many percent of the teachers are foreign teachers with special visa? We know that the Harmony Schools run by7/35
the Gulen movement here in the state of Texas are considered an H1B dependent organization. That is something that the U.S. government gives to any sort of business where at least 15% of all their employees are foreign nationals. In this case, which you'll find here at this particular school, this is an elementary school. So a lot of the teachers will be Caucasians, they will be Hispanics, they8/35
will be people that were born here. But you'll find the administration, the top level are all Turks, and you'll find that some of the teachers are Turkish as well. And so in this particular school, the principal is a Turkish man. He is a member of the Gulen movement. He takes his orders from Fatula Gulen in Sailorsburg, Pennsylvania. And that's Hop who's operating this particular school with9/35
the other Turkish people that are administrators and teachers here. Well, what is the process? Do they have to first show that they can't find any qualified teachers, Americans, here in the United States? You're absolutely right. There is a process where each business, or in this case the Harmony schools, this Gulen-managed cult group, they have to have a labor certification that they file with the Department of10/35
Labor saying, we can't find a teacher of English, we can't find an accountant, we can't find a teacher of Turkish to teach in our school. And they will put an advertisement in a local paper, but when you look at how that advertisement is construed, there's no way you'll find anyone locally that can actually fit that qualification. Many of these teachers that are coming in from Turkey11/35
that are teaching at the Harmony schools are not certified. They've never taught before in their lives. They may be, in some ways, very good people, and they may have their hearts in the right place in some ways. But they're not really teachers. They shouldn't be teaching our kids. We have a lot of teachers in Texas that need jobs that are certified. And they'll often make an12/35
excuse that they can't find science and math teachers. And I find that that to be really one of the more interesting arguments, because I'm told by experts, that's no longer true in our country. So they've used this process to bring in over 5,000 people from Turkey on H1B visas to work at their schools, and also the other businesses that are focused in this world of Gulen13/35
that we now have in the state of Texas. Construction companies that are constructing some of these schools, catering businesses, bus services, people importing uniforms from Turkey. All of this is part of the Gulen movement and how they make money off of us, the taxpayers here in the state of Texas. Now, when you talk to some of these parents or those who watch your documentary, what is14/35
the general reaction? They're shocked. They had no idea that this is going on. Part of that is the local media in Texas has done nothing to cover this. What they have done is made charter schools in general look very positive to parents, and they've covered the Harmony schools very positively as well. You have to remember the Harmony schools have been open for 17 years now. The15/35
Gulen movement has paid millions of dollars for good PR firms, some of the largest in the world, to get the message out that these are very wonderful schools. Everybody graduates, some of the statistics that you hear about the Harmony schools is all kids graduate and all kids go to college. Those are false statistics, but many parents hear that and they think this is where I want16/35
to send my child. Mark, one thing I don't know and that is the competition within this charter school operations. Who are the other players who want to open charter schools? Are they being prevented because of their own PR, Gulen's PR, and the bribery they give to politicians, etc. So that in a way they have created a monopoly? Well, I don't know if you can say that17/35
here in Texas the Gulen schools are a monopoly yet. They certainly are the largest charter school chain in Texas. They are growing, unabated, our politicians support them. But they also are supporting the growth of all charter schools because they see this as this kind of remedy to what's perceived as problems in our traditional public schools. And it's really not a remedy at all because these schools18/35
don't do any better than public schools. In spite of all their advertising, you can look at studies from Stanford and Berkeley. They really know better, they're no worse than what we have existing in our school systems. However, what they do is they take money out of the system, they use it corruptly, and they use it for things in this case that I don't think most Americans,19/35
most parents, most people that live here in Texas would be supportive of at all. This man's school, his network, Julian Network's school, have been shut down and labeled as extremists. In a country like Pakistan, all the places, the nation of all my graphic. And yet, they have remained untouched here. The Gulen movement has established itself here in the United States along the same lines as the20/35
Mafia did, the Kusunostra did back in the 40s and 50s. They're taking money from many different things that seem to be legal. But when you see how they're appropriating or misappropriating the money, and we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars now each year, we don't really know where that money is going. And we need to know where that money is going and we need to21/35
break up this group and send them back to where they came from. Well, this partially explains the money that is going into this. The money is coming from us. We are paying... At least partially taxpayers are paying this shady network. In 2007, in 2007, 2008, I had several Turkish teachers who contacted me and they wanted to anonymously blow the whistle because they felt their families were22/35
being threatened. Back in Turkey. And they were really fearful. Of course. And they told me that close to 50% of their paycheck, they have to commit to write a check from their own checkbook and donate to various Gulen networks and GEOs foundations, not only here in the United States, but even in countries like in Indonesia. And they're our law enforcement, our FBI needs to investigate that.23/35
They need to do a better job of finding out what's behind this. But I do agree that there's skimming money through various processes. So, there's skimming money through these various kickbacks that the teachers have to pay. I've heard they have to pay it in cash to the Turkish administrators. That there's actually a bag man that comes by the schools and each Turkish teacher has to give24/35
30, 40, 50% of their salary in cash to that person. I've also heard that the foreign Turkish teachers here on HB1 visas, they have to allow their tax returns to be prepared by a Gulen approved accountant. And their tax return refund is taken by the Gulen movement. Which, you know, I don't know about the legality of that either. Now, you mentioned the FBI and the task25/35
force. Well, we know that there have been several rates around the country. Did you contact the FBI and ask about the status? Well, we did ask the FBI in the case of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where one of the Gulen charter schools was rated. We actually have that in the film killing ad. And we followed that pretty closely. It was very odd situation because even the local26/35
Baton Rouge school board members could not get copies of the warrant. They were sealed. And even though the school board was operating this charter school, you know, they had given the charter to the Gulen movement, they couldn't find out what the FBI was doing in Baton Rouge at one of the schools that they were paying for. We know that the local federal prosecutors would not take27/35
the case. And it makes me wonder about the politics of this, you know, which politicians are putting a finger on local prosecutors, federal prosecutors, not to go further with these cases. You spent five years, five years, putting together this documentary with all the facts, all the documents that's facts, all the interviews. How can this be? In my opinion, there's a reason why the Gulen movement has28/35
grown surgematically here in Texas. And I think that reason will know in the future for sure. But I have my feelings about it. And I do believe that there's certain agencies within the US federal government that have had a long term connection with Imam Patula Gulen. The growth of these schools and the problems that we're seeing now in places like Texas are results of very bad29/35
foreign policy that our government made almost 30 years ago. And this goes back to the fall of the USSR and a vacuum that was developing in Central Asia as the Russians were leaving. And I do believe that our government had a role in the expansion of Gulen schools to fill that vacuum. And you can see all kinds of police here, the principal trying to get us30/35
off this property. We're on a street right now. But you can see they have the ability to call the law enforcement out against us, right? However, we're doing nothing wrong here. How about if we were to go and say, hey, we just wanted to introduce ourselves. Let's go. Come on. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. Come on. Go just tell us to leave. No, no,31/35
let's go. Come on. Are you ready? So this is Ilkir Yomans. We'll see if he leaves here. He may not want to be on camera. Yeah, there he goes. Ilkir, Ilkir Yomans. Ilkir, we like to talk to you. Don't avoid us, sir. Hello, officers. You know, we are entering the private property. We were just going to ask for his permission to film the schoolgrounds and he's32/35
not talking to us. Yes. So what he's asked is he has no problem with you guys being out here where you were that they were fine with completely. Yeah, that's public. Does it want you on the. Oh, no, we just wanted to get a specific. Yeah, we wanted to talk to him before he left. Yeah, yeah. Actually, he doesn't wish to speak with you guys. Yeah,33/35
we understand. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. He has no problem with you guys where you that. Yeah, we just wanted to make sure that we were outside the gate. Yeah. We were in public property. And every time we try to speak with one of them and say, can we please have an interview? They're just not talking. Yeah. So I'm so sorry. It happens all over the state that34/35
way. Thanks guys. Good luck guys. All right. Have a great day. Bye. Yeah. I mean, seriously, that's an abusive tax. Yeah. Well, you can see that it's not really a public school. Hi, I'm so about Edness. This news, but event was made possible only with our community members donations. This was just the beginning. So much can be done. And there is so much we can do