MerryLynn Gerstenschlager from Texas. For the past eight years, MerryLynn has lobbied legislators and spoken throughout Texas on the importance of passing legislation to require Texas’ charter school operators (who are appointed) to be American citizens, as is required of their counterparts, local elected school board trustees. Her concern is that there are over 35,000 students enrolled throughout the 58 campuses of the Turkish-run, taxpayer-funded, Harmony Charter Schools in Texas alone. The New York Times linked these schools to Fethullah Gulen, the controversial Turkish imam who lives in exile in Pennsylvania and has been accused by the Turkish government of instigating the July 15, 2016 coup in Turkey.
