Charter-School Group Founded by Turkish Leaders Becomes Force in Texas

Started a decade ago by a group of professors and businessmen from Turkey, the Cosmos Foundation has become Texas’s largest charter school operator and attracted complaints that it favors Turks in contracting and hiring, according to The New York Times.

Operating as Harmony Schools, the foundation has opened 33 Texas charters that receive more than $100-million in government funds. While schools officials say the institutions are strictly secular, many of their founders, operators, and contractors are followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher, now living in Pennsylvania, who has attracted a worldwide following espousing a moderate brand of Islam.

A network of businesses and organizations led by Turkish immigrants has grown up around Harmony Schools and other charter groups led by Gulen followers, raising questions over whether they are using government money to support a religious movement, The Times says.

Some teachers’ unions say the “Turkish schools” exploit a special visa program to import hundreds of instructors and administrators from Turkey, and established local building firms complain that most Harmony projects go to Turkish-owned firms.

Harmony Schools officials say they are careful to avoid teaching about religion, and they deny any official connection to the Gulen movement. Instead, they say their organization is focused on improving American schools.

“It’s basically a mission of our organization,” Soner Tarim, the superintendent of the 33 Texas schools.