VOUCHERS, CHARTER SCHOOLS & SPIES, OH MY!
How Billionaire Oligarchs, Turkish Clerics, and a British Libel Loser Are Reshaping Texas Public Education — and What John Adams Would Have Said About All of It
Welcome to the wild, bewildering, and frankly cinematic world of Texas public education policy — where the money flows out of classrooms, the spies are allegedly teaching calculus, a man who lost a libel case in Britain is helping shape state investigations, and the ghost of John Adams is absolutely losing his mind somewhere in the afterlife.
Buckle up. This one has everything.
What John Adams Actually Wanted
Before we dive into the current circus, let's set the baseline. John Adams — Founding Father, second President, and a man who had opinions — had a crystal-clear vision for what public education should be in a free republic.
It wasn't complicated. It was radical for its time, and frankly, it still is:
"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and must be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves." — John Adams
Adams didn't just suggest universal public education. He codified it into the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 — the oldest functioning written constitution in the world — declaring it the absolute duty of government to fund and cherish public schools for every child, from the wealthiest merchant's son to the poorest farmer's daughter.
His vision was sweeping and generational:
| Generation | Focus of Study | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| First | Politics and War | Secure basic liberty and peace |
| Second | Mathematics, Philosophy, Commerce | Build industry and wealth |
| Third | Painting, Poetry, Music, Architecture | Enrich the human soul |
The through-line? An educated citizenry is the only real defense against tyranny. Adams warned, with characteristic bluntness, that an ignorant populace would inevitably "heap riches and honors upon fools."
Reader, look around.
Enter the Billionaire Privatization Machine
Fast-forward roughly 245 years, and the vision Adams had — public funds, public schools, universal access — is under sustained, well-funded assault.
The modern privatization movement didn't emerge from parents frustrated with their local school. It was architected and bankrolled by a network of billionaire ideologues who believe that public education is, at its core, a government monopoly that should be broken up and handed to the market. The tools of this project are two instruments that now dominate Texas education policy:
- Vouchers — taxpayer dollars redirected from public schools to private institutions of the family's choosing.
- Charter Schools — publicly funded but privately managed schools that operate outside many of the accountability structures of traditional public schools.
Both systems drain resources from the public school system. Both systems have been aggressively championed by billionaire donors and their political allies in the Texas Legislature. And both systems raise the same foundational question Adams would have asked immediately:
Who exactly are we serving here — the children, or the investors?
The Spy Who Taught Me Algebra: The Gülen Charter Network
Now here is where the story takes a genuinely extraordinary turn — one that involves a Turkish cleric, the CIA, a Pennsylvania compound, a failed military coup, and over 50 charter school campuses in Texas alone.
Harmony Public Schools is the largest Gülen-inspired charter network in the United States, with over 50 campuses spread across Texas. It was founded in 2000 by Turkish-American academics inspired by the philosophy of Fethullah Gülen — a cleric who preached that the highest form of religious service was building secular, STEM-focused schools. No mosques. No madrasas. Just robotics competitions and AP Calculus.
On paper, this sounds admirable. In practice, the network has been a magnet for controversy that reads less like a school board meeting and more like a John le Carré novel:
The CIA Connection: When Gülen fought to stay in the United States, his lawyers submitted letters of support from former CIA officials, including Graham Fuller, former Vice Chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. The U.S. government — specifically the FBI, DHS, and State Department — actually opposed his green card. A federal judge overruled them in 2008. So Gülen stayed in Pennsylvania, running a global educational empire from a compound in the Pocono Mountains, under constant federal surveillance, until his death in late 2024.
The Salary Kickback Allegations: Federal investigators examined whether Turkish teachers imported on H-1B visas were being pressured to return up to 40% of their taxpayer-funded salaries back to Gülenist foundations. That is a remarkable use of the American public school payroll system.
The Vendor Carousel: State and federal audits found patterns of public construction, IT, and catering contracts flowing to businesses owned by fellow movement participants — a "closed-loop" financial ecosystem funded by Texas taxpayer dollars.
The Michael Flynn Subplot: During the 2016 presidential transition, Trump's incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Turkish interests to run a lobbying campaign against Gülen. Former CIA Director James Woolsey later claimed Flynn attended meetings where Turkish officials floated the idea of literally kidnapping Gülen from his Pennsylvania compound. This is a real thing that reportedly happened, in America, involving a man who briefly ran U.S. national security.
To be scrupulously fair: every investigation into Harmony's classrooms has found a standard, secular Texas curriculum. The kids are learning calculus, not theology. The scandals are administrative and financial — not pedagogical. But the question of whether American taxpayers should be funding a charter network with a foreign policy and alleged intelligence entanglements is entirely legitimate.
John Adams, who believed public schools should be instruments of American civic virtue, would have had thoughts.
The Voucher Mess: A British Libel Loser Helps Investigate Texas Schools
Now let's talk about the voucher side of the ledger, because the Texas Tribune and ProPublica just dropped a piece that deserves a slow clap for sheer audacity.
Texas's new voucher program — which redirects public tax dollars to private schools — was supposed to expand educational freedom. What it has actually produced, in part, is a state investigation into nearly 50 Islamic and Chinese private schools that was substantially shaped by a man named Sam Westrop — who, nearly a decade ago, was ordered by a British court to pay the equivalent of $173,000 in libel damages after publishing false terrorism allegations about a Muslim community leader.
The judge in that case wrote plainly: "There simply was no evidence to support the allegation of terrorism."
Westrop later admitted the underlying evidence was unreliable.
Years later, he made similar allegations — this time about Islamic private schools in Texas applying to the voucher program, claiming their leaders had ties to Hamas and other extremist organizations. He shared this research with the Texas Comptroller's office. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock then asked Attorney General Ken Paxton whether the state could exclude schools from the voucher program based on alleged ties to the Chinese Communist government or connections to CAIR — the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a mainstream Muslim civil rights organization. Paxton said yes.
Let's pause and appreciate the full architecture of what just happened:
- A man with a documented history of publishing unreliable terrorism allegations
- Feeds those allegations to a state comptroller
- Who uses them to investigate and delay dozens of minority-run private schools
- From a voucher program that was sold to the public as expanding freedom
Meanwhile, Christian private schools — many of which teach explicit religious doctrine, Young Earth creationism, and sectarian values — are flowing through the same voucher program with considerably less scrutiny.
This is not a defense of any particular school's curriculum. It is an observation that the application of "scrutiny" in Texas's voucher program appears to have a directional bias.
The Core Contradiction
Here is the central absurdity that ties all of this together:
The same political movement that champions vouchers for religious private schools — including schools that openly teach Christian theology with public dollars — is simultaneously alarmed that public charter schools with Turkish cultural roots might have foreign influence, and that Islamic private schools might have connections to Muslim civil rights groups.
The principle being applied is not "public funds should not fund religion or foreign influence." If that were the principle, it would be applied consistently.
The principle being applied is "public funds should flow to the right kind of private schools."
And that is precisely the opposite of what John Adams envisioned. Adams didn't say "cherish the schools of the right denomination." He said cherish all public schools, for all children, funded by all the people — because a republic that cannot educate its citizenry equally cannot survive.
The Bottom Line
Texas now has two parallel alternative education systems — vouchers and charter networks — both drawing from the public education funding pool, both raising serious questions about accountability, transparency, and whose interests are actually being served.
- One system funnels money to private religious schools with minimal oversight, while selectively investigating minority-faith institutions using research from a man a British court found published unreliable libel.
- The other system operates a sprawling STEM charter network with documented financial irregularities, alleged intelligence connections, and a geopolitical backstory that would make a Netflix showrunner weep with joy.
Neither of these systems is what Adams had in mind when he wrote that the whole people must educate the whole people.
The children caught in the middle of this — in underfunded public schools watching resources drain away, in charter schools with murky financial back-ends, in private schools whose voucher applications are being judged by discredited foreign lobbyists — deserve better than this.
In November, remember: candidates who believe public funds belong in public schools, accountable to the public, aren't being old-fashioned. They're being Adamses.
And in 2026, that's about as radical and necessary as it gets.
Sources: Texas Tribune / ProPublica (July 17, 2026); John Adams, Massachusetts Constitution of 1780; Letter to Abigail Adams, 1780; Federal court records, EEOC v. Harmony Public Schools; DOJ settlement, Concept Schools (2014); LAUSD OIG Audit, Magnolia Public Schools (2014); California State Auditor Report (2015).
Sources & Links
🗞️ Investigative Journalism — Vouchers & Texas Schools
Texas Tribune / ProPublica — "How a man once ordered to pay libel damages helped launch an investigation into Islamic private schools" (July 17, 2026) The core investigative piece on Sam Westrop, the Texas Comptroller's investigation, and Islamic private schools in the voucher program. 🔗 https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/17/texas-vouchers-islamic-private-schools-sam-westrop/
Texas Tribune — "Turkey Follows Through with Complaint Against Harmony" (May 24, 2016) Covers the Turkish government's formal legal complaint against Harmony Public Schools in Texas, alleging financial misconduct and visa abuse. 🔗 https://www.texastribune.org/2016/05/24/turkey-follows-through-complaint-against-harmony/
Texas Tribune — "Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock Asks AG About Voucher Exclusions" (December 22, 2025) Documents Acting Comptroller Hancock's request to exclude schools with alleged ties to CAIR or the Chinese Communist government. 🔗 https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/22/texas-school-voucher-exclusions-kelly-hancock/
🏫 Gülen / Harmony Charter School Network
The New York Times — "Charter Schools Tied to Turkey Grow in Texas" (June 7, 2011) One of the earliest major national profiles of the Gülen-inspired charter school network in Texas, including Harmony's rapid expansion and denials of religious ties. 🔗 https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/education/07charter.html
Houston Public Media — "Turkish Government Wants Texas Officials to Investigate Harmony Charter Network" (May 24, 2016) Details the formal allegations filed against Harmony, including H-1B visa abuse and discrimination against non-Turkish employees. 🔗 https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2016/05/24/153212/turkish-government-wants-texas-officials-to-investigate-harmony-charter-network/
Yale University — Campus Press: "Gülen Schools: One of America's Largest and Most Controversial CMOs" An academic overview of the Gülen charter network's structure, EEOC lawsuit, and financial controversies across multiple states. 🔗 https://campuspress.yale.edu/edstudiescourses/gulen-schools-one-of-americas-largest-and-most-controversial-cmos/
⚖️ Federal Investigations & Legal Actions
U.S. Department of Justice — "Illinois-Based Charter School Management Company to Pay $4.5 Million to Settle Claims Relating to E-Rate Program" The official DOJ press release confirming Concept Schools' $4.5 million civil settlement for False Claims Act violations related to the federal E-Rate technology program. 🔗 https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/illinois-based-charter-school-management-company-pay-45-million-settle-claims-relating-e-rate
Chicago Sun-Times — "Concept Schools Charter Chain Paying $4.5 Million to End Federal Investigation" (November 6, 2020) Detailed reporting on the settlement, the FBI raid, and the internal dynamics of the Concept Schools network. 🔗 https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/11/6/21552520/concept-schools-charter-school-chain-investigation-settlement
Columbia University / NCSPE — "Charter Chain Concept Schools Fined $4.5 Million by Feds for Self-Dealing" Academic policy analysis of the Concept Schools case and its implications for charter school oversight nationally. 🔗 https://ncspe.tc.columbia.edu/current-events/content/090-charter-chain-concept-schools-fined-45-million-by-feds-for-self-dealing.php
Progress Ohio — "Concept Schools: Poor Results, Worse Oversight" (Full PDF Report) A detailed investigative report including FBI subpoenas and search warrants obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, examining the network's academic and financial performance. 🔗 https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.progressohio.org/docs/Concept_Report_-Poor_Results_Worse_Oversight_FINAL.pdf
🏛️ John Adams & Public Education — Primary & Historical Sources
John Adams, Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 — Chapter V, Section II The foundational legal document in which Adams codified the government's duty to fund and maintain public schools. The oldest functioning written constitution in the world. 🔗 https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-constitution
John Adams to Abigail Adams, 1780 — "Letter on the Arts and Sciences" The famous letter in which Adams outlined his generational vision for education — from politics and war, to science and commerce, to the arts. 🔗 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-03-02-0258 (National Archives / Founders Online)
Massachusetts Historical Society — Adams Papers Digital Edition The primary archive for Adams's writings on education, democracy, and civic virtue, including his correspondence with Jefferson on the necessity of universal public schooling. 🔗 https://www.masshist.org/adams-papers/
🌐 Gülen Movement — Background & Geopolitics
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — Opinion on Comptroller Authority to Exclude Voucher Schools (January 2026) The official AG opinion confirming the Comptroller's authority to exclude schools from the Texas voucher program based on alleged foreign or extremist ties. 🔗 https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-paxton-issues-opinion-confirming-comptroller-offices-full-authority-stop-taxpayer
Middle East Forum — "MEF Research on Islamist Networks in Texas Sparks Congressional Action and State Investigations" The organization behind Sam Westrop's research that was shared with the Texas Comptroller — useful for understanding the ideological origin of the voucher school investigations. 🔗 https://www.meforum.org/press-releases/mef-research-on-islamist-networks-in-texas-sparks-congressional-action-and-state-investigations
Note: All links were verified as of July 18, 2026. The Texas Tribune and ProPublica pieces are the most current primary sources. For historical Adams quotes, the National Archives' Founders Online database is the gold-standard primary source.
