There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, henceforth merely if you cut away the unprofitable bits, like practiced teachers. In his documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a New Jersey TV news reporter, turns the camera on the monumental corruption and mismanagement that has led his state to spend more than any other on its students but with shoddy results. As $400,000 is spent per classroom, but reading proficiency is just 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is clear, which doesn't mean it's not controversial.
The two sides of this struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to allocate 90 cents of every taxpayer buck into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a selection of school administrators make upwards of $100,000. On the other slope are the supporters of a charter school system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and shake off the public nightmare. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it's practically unimaginable to fire an instructor -- so even a shoddy one has a trade for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of out of the ordinary aspects of public teaching, tenure, funding, patronage drops, corruption --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the heavy topics amongst the education-reform movement."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released documentary "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest slant. "My film is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
It is undoubtedly analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is continually on the people affected, chiefly the inner-city students trapped in a shattered system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own intense argument for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
And although it may be easy to assume the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is an exceedingly familiar situation. Bowdon's film illustrates a local dilemma, but any viewer will realize the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to choose their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward conflict to retrieve control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40727
The two sides of this struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to allocate 90 cents of every taxpayer buck into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a selection of school administrators make upwards of $100,000. On the other slope are the supporters of a charter school system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and shake off the public nightmare. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it's practically unimaginable to fire an instructor -- so even a shoddy one has a trade for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of out of the ordinary aspects of public teaching, tenure, funding, patronage drops, corruption --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the heavy topics amongst the education-reform movement."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released documentary "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest slant. "My film is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
It is undoubtedly analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is continually on the people affected, chiefly the inner-city students trapped in a shattered system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own intense argument for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
And although it may be easy to assume the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is an exceedingly familiar situation. Bowdon's film illustrates a local dilemma, but any viewer will realize the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to choose their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward conflict to retrieve control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40727
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