Gülen Schools are named in honor of Fetullah Gülen, a Turkish writer, preacher, and former imam who currently lives in the Poconos. Though still technically a Turkish citizen, Gülen is living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania following conflicts with the Turkish government in the late 1990s.

And when we say conflicts, we mean conflicts.

Former Turkish President Abdullah Gul, along with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, accused Gülen of attempting to usurp the government's power and passed a law back in March of 2014 that would close all of the Gülen schools currently operating in Turkey by September 2015 (source).

As if that's not enough, Erdogan, who is now serving as President of Turkey, is working with new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to close all the Gülen schools in Africa as well (source). Which probably has you wondering…

Who Is John Galt?

Sorry. We couldn't resist the Atlas Shrugged allusion. Of course, what you really want to know is, "Who is Fetullah Gülen?"

Gülen is the leader of a politically powerful (obviously) socio-religious movement in Turkey known as "Hizmet," or "the service," and as such he has amassed a worldwide following estimated to be somewhere between one and eight million people. (It's a big window, we know, but that's the best estimate we've got right now.)

In the U.S., that following has translated into more than 140 charter schools that often operate as chains with names like "Harmony" (in Texas, Arkansas, and D.C.), "Horizon" (in Ohio and Illinois), and "Magnolia" (in California). Most of the schools also include some combination of "science academy," "discovery school," or "academic excellence" in their names, which is apt since their focus is generally on STEM education.

Aren't Gülen Schools Controversial?

Yes, but not necessarily because of their association with Gülen or his movement. By all accounts, the Gülen schools in the United States are secular and do not promote the religious beliefs of Gülen—or anyone else for that matter.

Instead, they appear to be focused on providing exceptional math and science education both for Turkish migrants and American students. And that—the math and science rigor—was the mission of the first Gülen Charter school that opened in Houston, Texas in 2000.

So then, what is the controversy around Gülen schools? We'll give you a hint. It's the same controversy that surrounds many charter schools: their use of public funds.

Of course, in the case of a few Gülen schools, the issue goes beyond the usual conflict of how to fund public schools and charter schools from the same pile of money when charter schools aren't bound by any of the same rules and constraints that affect public institutions. (You've heard that one before, right?)

When it comes to Gülen schools, there have been accusations of flat-out mismanagement of funds as well as cronyism. In more than a few instances, it has been alleged that Gülen schools awarded contracts for building construction, food service, staff, and faculty to… fellow Gülen followers. And the money that's being awarded? Yep. It's coming from taxpayers via school funding formulas and government bonds. So that's what all the brouhaha is about, although if you Google "Gülen schools in the U.S.," it may take you a while to get to that fact. First, you'll have to sift through a few (10? 30?) posts that link the controversy to Gülen's ethnicity instead.

For some excellent coverage of this side of the Gülen school story, check out these articles:

• "" from The Atlantic
• "Charter Schools Tied to Turkey Grow in Texas" from The New York Times

Getting Philosophical

Now that we've got all that controversy out of the way, let's talk about the Gülen approach. Just what is the mission behind these schools, anyway?

According to Dr. Sheryl Santos, a Gülen devotee and the author of "The Urgency of Educational Reform in the United States of America: Lessons Learned from Fethullah Gülen," there are four facets of Gülen's philosophy that need to be addressed in the American education system (and we quote):

• "interfaith/intercultural dialogue;
• character education;
• parental involvement and education; and
• the integration of science and spirituality."

Additionally, according to Yetkin Yildirim, who wrote the proposal for that first Gülen inspired charter school in Houston, there is a great need for more rigorous science and math education in the United States. That, he says, along with giving back to his community, was his main motivator in applying for the charter for the first Harmony school in Houston back in 2000. Today, Harmony schools educate upwards of 16,000 students in Texas.

So…What's the Deal?

When you look at the primary tenets of Gülen schools as expressed by Santos, and hear that Yildirim was interested in giving back to his community by creating a school with a rigorous STEM focus, it's hard to see what all the fuss has been about. Sure, there are the money issues, and we don't mean to downplay those, but as we mentioned before, if you Google "Gülen schools in the U.S.," you're going to get a lot of results that focus more on the ethnicity of Fethullah Gülen than his philosophies, which may suggest that at least some of the controversy surrounding these particular charter schools may be founded in xenophobia.

But you're smart, so we'll leave the judgments to you. And to future journalistic investigations that may give us a clearer picture of what this movement and its schools are really all about.

To keep from getting too antsy while you wait for those, you can check out the The Gülen Movement and Turkish Soft Power" by Bayram Balci at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website for more (way more—it's a big pile of super intensive research) information about Fetullah Gülen, his movement, and the role that Gülen inspired schools are playing in education today.