The current education method in America is working aptly, says Bob Bowdon, but only for some -- and those few surely aren't the students. In his education docudrama "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a terrific ugly scene of the institutional degeneracy that has resulted in pretty much incredible wastes of taxpayer money. It's not operose for Bowdon to illustrate that something's terribly awry with a state that pays $17,000 per pupil but can only manage a 39% reading proficiency rate -- that there's a crisis is undeniable, how to deal with it is another question altogether.
On the one side is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shadowy school officials, who guarantee that, as Bowdon points out in his movie, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a upsetting example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. The other cabal is the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can shake off the authority of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more cautiously used. In those broken public schools, Bowdon points out, it's almost unacceptable to fire a teacher -- so even a meager one has a trade for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of diverse aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, support drops, corruption --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics within the education-reform movement."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. The picture has started a lot of talk, which should no doubt continue with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest angle. "My picture is the left-brained variation, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is invariably on the people affected, specially the inner-city students trapped in a damaged system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own potent argument for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
It's difficult to watch a film about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unambiguous that this is a national crisis seen through a tight lens. A viewer anyplace in the country will discern similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and eagerness for a resolution. The one he seems to be most behind is the charter schools, which take the reins from the unions and give them back to the taxpayer. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward struggle to regain control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 42534
On the one side is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shadowy school officials, who guarantee that, as Bowdon points out in his movie, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a upsetting example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. The other cabal is the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can shake off the authority of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more cautiously used. In those broken public schools, Bowdon points out, it's almost unacceptable to fire a teacher -- so even a meager one has a trade for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of diverse aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, support drops, corruption --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics within the education-reform movement."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. The picture has started a lot of talk, which should no doubt continue with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest angle. "My picture is the left-brained variation, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is invariably on the people affected, specially the inner-city students trapped in a damaged system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own potent argument for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
It's difficult to watch a film about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unambiguous that this is a national crisis seen through a tight lens. A viewer anyplace in the country will discern similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and eagerness for a resolution. The one he seems to be most behind is the charter schools, which take the reins from the unions and give them back to the taxpayer. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward struggle to regain control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 42534
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