To the Harmony Public Schools Community:

A disappointing article on charter schools in this week’s New York Times attempts to put Harmony Public Schools in Texas in a context that is not accurate, necessitating this brief response. Many of us at Harmony Schools cooperated extensively with the Times on this story over the last several months, providing documents, interviews, tours and dozens of detailed responses to specific questions in good faith.  But, as sometimes happens, the end result was not entirely what we had hoped.

Specifically:

• Repeating an old story, the article alleges connections where there are none. As we told the Times reporter repeatedly, Harmony Schools do not teach religion and have no affiliation with Fetullah Gulen or the so-called Gulen movement  yet the article repeatedly states and implies that such an affiliation exists, based on a composite of innuendo, circumstantial evidence and rumors.  This approach is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, since the absence of a connection is not “news.”  The facts are clear:  We do not teach religion at all and we are not affiliated with any movement.
• The article also questions whether “the schools are using taxpayer money to benefit the Gulen movement.” Since we have no affiliation with the Gulen movement, it is absurd and inaccurate for the Times to suggest that taxpayer funds are benefitting them.  At Harmony Public Schools of Texas, taxpayer funds are used solely to support operations and educate students, and we do so at a superior level and a lower cost per student than non-charter public schools.
• With regard to contracts and purchasing, we use a bidding or procurement process set out by the state of Texas, and Harmony Public Schools do not discriminate on the basis of gender, national origin, ethnicity, religion, or disability in its programs, employment, admissions or selection of vendors. A range of factors, including price, product availability, and demonstrated ability to deliver are evaluated in selecting vendors, and all the criteria for “best value” have to be met, not just low price.
• Finally, the article contains a clear anti-immigrant bias, and suggests that Harmony, one of the most successful charter school programs in the country, is somehow suspect because our founders immigrated to America from Turkey. As you all know, Harmony was founded by Turkish-Americans who saw a need and an opportunity to help Texas schoolchildren in the fields of math, science and technology, and we are proud of our heritage and of what we have accomplished. Importantly, our schools have become more diverse every year, and we will continue to diversify as we continue to grow.

The bottom line is that Harmony Public School operations and business practices in Texas are overseen and audited by the Texas Education Agency and, like every other state charter school in Texas, Harmony follows and complies with all applicable state laws and regulations. As we told the Times, at no time during our 10-year history has the Texas Education Agency found Harmony Schools to be out of compliance with state regulations.

Sadly, the impressive achievements of Harmony students - the real measure of success for any school – were barely mentioned in the article, despite being provided to the Times.

We have sent a brief Letter to the Editor to the Times, and we encourage you to post your comments on the article on the Times website at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/education/07charter.html

Finally, if you have any questions or concerns about Harmony Schools or issues raised in the Times article, please contact me directly at 713-343-3333, ext. 205.

Sincerely,

Dr. Soner Tarim, CEO/Superintendent of Schools

Harmony Public Schools