Texas probes charter school system after Turkish complaint


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas is investigating a charter school system that the Turkish government claims has ties to a moderate Islamic cleric it's accused of inspiring a military coup attempt.

The Texas Education Agency said Friday that Turkey alleges Harmony Public Schools gave preferential treatment to Turkish owned and operated vendors in violation of competitive bidding requirements. Turkey also alleges the school system misused U.S. and state funds by guaranteeing a $1.9 million bond for a Turkish operated charter network in Arkansas.

In a statement, Harmony calls the claims "preposterous" and "welcomes the opportunity to fully cooperate with the Texas Education Agency."

Harmony has more than 31,000 students at 48 campuses in Texas. Turkey says Harmony has ties to Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of a July 15 coup attempt who's living in Pennsylvania.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent Religion stories

Related topics

Religion
The Associated Press

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast