Gulen schools and their booming H1B visa applications

Consider the following (based on the list Top 100 H1b Visa Sponsors In Secondary School Education Since 2008 appearing on 7/23/2010):

• The Gulen schools and their related organizations account for 31.5% of all H1B visa applications requested by the top 100 secondary school education H1B visa sponsors. (Table 1)
• Of the top 100 secondary school education H1B visa sponsors, 34 of the 100 sponsors were Gulen schools or their related organizations.
• A total of 4277 visas were requested by the top 100 sponsors.
• The Gulen schools, or their related organizations, submitted 1349 of the 4277 secondary school applications
• There were fewer than 100 U.S. Gulen schools in operation during that year. Read about the characteristics of these schools here.
• The Cosmos Foundation, which operates approximately 27 Gulen schools in Texas, ranked #1 with 521 visa applications. These schools are heavily, but not exclusively, staffed with Turkish and Turkic teachers. The administrators and founders are nearly exclusively Turkish males.
• To contrast, Global Teachers Research Resources (a teacher headhunting organization) ranked #2 with 325 visa applications. GTRR’s newsletters reveal a wide range of teacher nationalities.
• Further investigation is likely to reveal that close to 100% of the visa applications of the Gulen schools and their related organizations will be for individuals from Turkey.
• Public school districts also applied for visas. In fact, seven of the top-20 largest school districts in the country were also top-100 sponsors for visa applications. These seven districts represent nearly 2,900,000 students attending approximately 3,831 schools. (Table 2)
• When averaged, seven of the top-20 largest school districts in the country submitted one H1B visa application for every 6.2 schools.
• The average number of visa applications for the Gulen schools was 13.5 H1B visa applications per school!

The hypothesis which has been presented elsewhere in the blogosphere is that the Gulenists operating the charter schools and their related organizations use “teacher shortage” as their rationale for bringing more and more fellow Hizmet volunteers (A.K.A. Gulen missionaries) into the U.S. It is important to note that – unlike a more typical teacher headhunting organization – these schools exclusively seek only those foreign teachers who are Turkish or Turkic, and primarily male. And as more and more Gulen schools are established, the number of Gulen missionaries working as Turkish charter school teachers -- courtesy of all those H1B visas -- can continue to grow. Ten more Gulen charter schools are scheduled to open this coming fall.*

Table 1: “TOP 100 H1B VISA SPONSORS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION SINCE 2008” GULEN SCHOOLS & THEIR RELATED ORGANIZATIONS ONLY
Visa Rank	Company	EIN = Federal Employer ID Number*	H1B Visa Applications	Notes
1	Cosmos Foundation dba Harmony Science Academy	760615245	521	~30 charter schools in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Tennessee
9	Cosmos Foundation [dba Harmony Public Schools	760615245	101	Same as above
10	Riverwalk Education Foundation	760615245	97	4 charter schools in Texas, dba School of Science & Technology
15	Pelican Educational Foundation [dba Abramson Science & Technology Charter School]	203801713	58	2 charter schools in Louisiana
16	Dove Science Academy [dba Sky Foundation]	731578930	57	3 Gulen charter schools in Oklahoma, plus one attempt in Arkansas
18	Lisa Academy	061665076	53	2 charter schools in Arkansas, under Little Scholars of Arkansas (LISA) Foundation
22	Dove Science Academy Oklahoma City	731578930	42	2 charter schools in Oklahoma
26	Sonoran Science Academy (also dba Daisy Education Corporation)	860990917	33	8 charter schools in Arizona
32	Millennium Education Foundation	421692516	26	2, possibly 3, charter schools in Missouri
35	Horizon Science Academy Dayton High Sc	201849958	24	Single charter school in Ohio
41	Beehive Educational Services	200912672	20	Single charter school in Utah
45	Horizon Science Academy		19	Unspecified number of charter schools in Ohio
48	Fulton Science Academy	582512910	18	3 charter schools in Georgia
49	Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation	954649884	17	12 charter schools in California
53	Hampden Charter School Of Science	unknown	16	Single charter school in Massachusetts
53	Paterson Charter School For Sci&tech	223799763	16	Single charter school in New Jersey
58	Paragon Education	201634330	15	Single charter school in AZ; affiliated with Daisy Educational Corporation dba Sonoran Science Academy
58	Milky Way Education Center	223261282	15	Operates a private Gulen school in NJ (Pioneer Science Academy A.K.A. Pioneer Academy of Science); sometimes written “Milkyway”
58	Millenium Education Foundation	421692516	15	See other “Millennium” organization above
58	River City Education Services (FL)	205773949	15	Involved with schools in FL; some sort of relationship to the Grace Institute.
64	Cosmos Foundation Inc, Dba Harmony School Of Innov	760615245	14	See Cosmos Foundation above
64	Horizon Educational Services Of Columbus	311657839	14	Single charter school in Ohio (?)
64	wellspring cultural educational foundation	061610852	14	This may be the organization which oversees Putnam Science Academy, a private boarding school in Connecticut. More notes below.
77	Brooklyn Amity School	113511046	12	A private Gulen school in NYC, described as a Turkish school by Today’s Zaman
77	Chicago Math. And Sci. Acdmy. Charter Sch	450532536	12	Single charter school in IL
77	Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School	200723492	12	Single charter school in NY
77	Horizon Science Academy Cleveland High School		12	Single charter school in OH
77	Burlington American Turkish Org	470947586	12	For teacher positions in NJ; unspecified school
77	Daisy Education [dba Sonoran Science Academy]	860990917	12	Daisy Education Corporation, see #26 above
77	Chicago Math. & Science Academy Char. School, Inc	450532536	12	Single charter school in IL (Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy Charter School Inc)
77	Sonoran Science Academy-davis Monthan	see SSA ranked #26	12	Single charter school in AZ;
87	Sonoran Science Academy Broadway	412263902	11	Sonoran Science Academy Broadway This SSA has its own EIN
87	Horizon Science Academy Elementary School	262061654	11	Single charter school in OH
87	Horizon Science Academy Toledo	200524037	11	Single charter school in OH

NOTES:

• View 990s at http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/990search.php/
• The visa list features a Millennium Education Foundation as well as a Millenium [sic] Education Foundation; both organizations have the same address (5605 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO).
• Burlington American Turkish Organization sponsors teacher positions in New Jersey.
• The Gulen schools in Ohio (Horizon Science and Noble Academies) are managed by Concept Schools, but they operate as independent non-profits.
• The address on the 2008 Form 990 for Wellspring Cultural and Educational Foundation Inc is West Haven, CT, and its program is described as the following: “To establish, maintain and nourish Educational and Cultural programs for the benefit of turkish-americans and persons of turkish-american descent.” The form does not list a board of directors, but it does list the highest compensated employees who are school administrators for the only known Gulen school in Connecticut, the Putnam Science Academy, a private boarding school which was described as a “Turkish school” in Today’s Zaman. The principal who listed in 2007 is Ercan Tozan, who is now the principal of the Rochester Academy Science Charter School, a Gulen-identified school in New York.

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THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

At Fetullah Gulen.org is an article which explains the mission and experience of the Hizmet volunteers who are fanning out to schools across the globe to work as Gulen missionairies.
Pioneering Turkish Teachers Realize Long-sought Dream, May 31, 2009, Sunday’s Zaman (a Gulenist publication)

Marking the seventh year of this event [2009 Turkish Olympiads], the International Turkish Olympiads is just one of the fruits of the tireless work of self-sacrificing teachers who have moved to different parts of the world, being inspired by the well-known Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, widely considered to be one of the most influential thinkers alive today.
Having witnessed the harmony between the students of those 115 participating countries, despite the fact that they are competing against each other for first place in one of the 14 different categories all requiring mastery in Turkish, one cannot but agree that if global peace is going to be a reality one day, its existence will owe a great deal to those who incessantly communicate their transcendent love, which does not recognize borders or discriminate against anyone.
Walking among those students without even uttering a word, it is impossible not to see the beauty they form together. Students coming from Nigeria, the UK, Yemen, the US, Mexico, Tajikistan, Australia and 108 other countries around the world, hand-in-hand, are the perfect assurance for a better tomorrow… What about the friendship between Iraqi Sazgar Darabek from Sulaimaniya Girls College and American Denise Stacy Uraias from Texas Science Academy?…
The fatigue and pain that needed to be contended with in order for these teachers to deliver a fruitful outcome cannot be underestimated. They made the sacrifice of moving to countries far from Turkey that most of their fellow countrymen have never even heard of and where the climates are not so pleasant…
…Each year, contestants are selected from every country where there is at least one Turkish school by a jury of teachers working at that particular institution…

This blogger, a Turkish teacher in Thailand, also lists some of the international Gulen schools.
Click to watch "HAYAL EDIN" a propaganda video about the event produced by Samonyolu TV, a known Gulenist Turkish TV station (hayal = n. dream, fantasy, etc., edin = v. obtain, acquire, etc.).
From the official Web site of the International Turkish Olympiad: "...from our land the power of the Turkish language would spread throughout the world.”

Read more about the international aspect of this movement here.

Table 2: “TOP 100 H1B VISA SPONSORS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION SINCE 2008”: SCHOOL DISTRICTS AMONG THE TOP-20 LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE U.S.
Visa Rank	Company	H1B Visa Applications	Number of schools	Number of students
4	Prince George s County Public Schools (MD) #17	288	197	131,014
6	Los Angeles Unified School District (CA) #2	133	658	707,627
11	New York City Public Schools (NY) #1	82	1450	999,150
16	Houston ISD (TX) #7	57	300+	202,936
28	School District of Philadelphia (PA) # 10	28	291	178,241
41	Chicago Public Schools (IL) #3	20	675	413,694
64	School Board of Broward County (FL) #6	14	260	262,813
	Total	622	3,831	2,895,475

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*Gulen schools scheduled to open Fall 2010

• Sonoran Science Academy-Phoenix Metro
• Magnolia Science Academy – Santa Clara
• Magnolia Science Academy 8 – Bell
• Lotus School for Excellence – Longmont
• Fulton Sunshine Academy, Elementary School
• Gateway Science Academy of St. Louis
• Albuquerque School of Excellence
• Harmony School of Nature & Athletics
• Harmony Science Academy
• Memphis School of Excellence

[None of this development is coincidental. Clearly, there is a business plan at work.]