DIS11-Killing Ed, Interview with Mark Hall - Discourse

Mark Hall is not just a Texas lawyer; he is also the visionary film director behind the powerful documentary Killing Ed, which explores pressing education issues with a unique visual lens. Killing Ed delves into the explosive expansion of the largest charter school operator in the USA, the Gulen Movement—an Islamic group that originated in Turkey and now operates from Pennsylvania. Through firsthand accounts from teachers, experts, and parents, alongside testimonies from former followers of cleric Fethullah Gulen, the documentary uncovers a troubling web of questionable practices that serve the Movement's non-educational objectives, raising critical concerns about the educational quality for over 70,000 students enrolled in these charter schools. The film concludes with a striking epilogue featuring footage from the violent July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, revealing the far-reaching implications of the Movement's influence.

School choice, often mistakenly viewed as a predominantly conservative or American concept, has rich historical roots that extend back to the 1930s to the early 1980s, gaining significant traction from Soviet Communist and socialist ideology, particularly through the efforts of University of California–Berkeley professors John E. “Jack” Coons and Stephen Sugarman, who championed this initiative to help low-income families; their advocacy for vouchers as a mechanism for school choice resonated powerfully with socialist progressives in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, who sought to dismantle the perceived "elitism" entrenched in public education, marking it as a pivotal movement for expanding the so-called "education freedom" and opportunity in education. Raising significant questions about the Republican Party's current policies that align with these ideologies and their support for international cultist organizations like the Gülen Movement. Why is the Republican Party choosing a system that emphasizes control while using taxpayer money to fund private organizations? Texas already has numerous educational options that don't require excessive funding to address existing problems. To gain a clearer understanding of this overlooked narrative, watch Killing Ed by director Mark Hall on OBBM Network TV, which reveals the troubling realities behind these misleading voucher choices.

Categories: Education

Starring: Jackie Besinger and Mark Hall