GÜLEN CHARTER SCHOOLS SCRUTINIZED BY US MEDIA
- Daily Sabah
- Updated : 13.07.2014 12:58:45
- Published : 13.07.2014 12:50:16
According to Citywatch which is a Los Angeles based website, the Gülen Movement has a secret agenda despite the fact that they describe themselves as a transformational and social movement. They compare it to the Catholic secret society, Opus Dei and claim that the movement is not solely funded by its members but is actually funded by American tax dollars since 1999 when Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the movement came to the US in self-imposed exile. Here, he has established over 147 charter schools with tens of thousands of students and has brought hundreds of teachers and organizational leaders from Turkey to contribute to the movement's activities. It is claimed that the movement has a net income of about $500 million per year from taxpayer money while each school has between 300 - 800 students also financed by American tax money at about $7,000 per student.
Citywatch also touched upon the fact that there is very little media coverage of the Gülen Movement, which they accuse of "bleeding American public schools and filching the money for their own purposes, from the pockets of American tax payers."
On the other hand, the News Outlet, a student journalism lab headquartered at Youngstown State University has criticized the Gülen Movement for its opaque nature after they attempted to contact the board members of Gülenist charter schools in Ohio. They question the fact that almost all board members are of Turkish background and claim many of these board members are new to the US unlike traditional American public school board members who cannot be elected without being registered voters. They highlight the fact