Talk:Harmony Public Schools

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Influence of Gülen movement
Discuss it here and provide references, else I'll get the page protected. Rhadow (talk) 00:56, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Harmony Public Schools is heavily associated with the Gülen religious movement/organization, though thoroughly denied by the school's spokesman. Furthermore, first hand accounts from a former Harmony employees, who chose to remain anonymous, claim that "Every faculty member who was brought over from Turkey via an H1-B visa is under a 'hush hush' requirement to forfeit a cut of every paycheck for unspecified reasons." The school network has been accused of being part of Gülen's "academic empire", yet Gülen still denies relations between Harmony and himself.[citation needed]

-- no citation given, and no facts to backup this assertion. If there are truly "first hand accounts", they need to be cited. Opinion is not fact.

Sharon Higgins, a public school advocate and researcher on Gülen-linked schools, argues that there are 167 Gülen-linked charter schools in 26 states including the D.C.[21][unreliable source?]

-- Neither Ms. Higgins nor her blog are reliable sources of information, outside conspiracy theorist circles. Aside from her personal opinion, there is no - and she provides no direct - evidence linking Harmony Public Schools to any other charter schools except the ones operated or managed by them.

Mark Hall, the producer of the documentary titled Killing Ed: Charter Schools, Corruption and the Gülen Movement in America, says that "the documentary is about one of the largest networks of taxpayer-funded charter schools in the U.S. are a worst-case-scenario—operated with questionable academic, labor, and H1-B visa standards by members of the “Gülen Movement” – a rapidly expanding, global Islamic group whose leader, Fethullah Gülen, lives in seclusion in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania."[22]

-- Mr. Hall's "documentary" provides no clear evidence, only conjecture and opinion, of a link between between Harmony Public Schools and other charter schools (aside from those operated and/or managed by HPS), nor does it provide clear evidence linking Harmony Public Schools to Mr. Gulen.Tlankford1977 (talk) 20:39, 27 February 2018 (UTC)Tim Lankford

Use of H1-B visas
New York Times article in 2011 also raised suspicions about the HB-1 visas used by Harmony, stating that "American consular employees reviewing visas have questioned the credentials of some teachers as they sought to enter the country. "'Most applicants had no prior teaching experience, and the schools were listed as related to' Mr. Gulen [Fethullah Gulen], a consular employee wrote in a 2009 cable", and stating, "Some with dubious credentials were denied visas."[17]

-- The paragraph in the New York Times from which this paragraph is sourced does not directly refer to Harmony Public Schools. In fact the author, Ms. Saul, states clearly: "American consular employees reviewing visas have questioned the credentials of some teachers as they sought to enter the country. “Most applicants had no prior teaching experience, and the schools were listed as related to” Mr. Gulen, a consular employee wrote in a 2009 cable. It did not say which schools had hired the teachers. Some with dubious credentials were denied visas."Tlankford1977 (talk) 20:43, 27 February 2018 (UTC)