The school system might be made to be vastly profitable, says Bob Bowdon, although but at the expense of things comparable to teachers and students. In his education documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a gravid ugly scene of the institutional depravity that has resulted in almost incredible wastes of taxpayer money. The numbers expose the tale: $17,000 exhausted per student, and at hand's just a 39% reading proficiency rate, it's tough to argue that there's a crisis underway, but harder to concur on a resolution.
The two sides of this struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's picture: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a variety of school administrators make upwards of $100,000. On the other slope are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and elude the public nightmare. In those broken public schools, Bowdon points out, it's pretty much inconceivable to fire an instructor -- so even a dreadful one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of different aspects of public education, tenure, funding, patronage drops, corruption --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics inside the education-reform drive."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationwide a year later. It nevertheless proceeds the more-recently released, although higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest stance, draws more interest to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained position means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. He follows the money to extract conclusions about how tainted the Jersey school system is, but his picture features moments of elevated emotion and heartache. One girl, weeping after learning she wasn't selected in a lottery for a charter school, tells the story of What Went Wrong as well as Bowdon's arguments.
And though there's an irony in this form of public depravity happening in a state famed for its organized crime, it's obvious that this is not an isolated collapse. Any watcher will realize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to select their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But "The Cartel" also shows us how laborious it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40727
The two sides of this struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's picture: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a variety of school administrators make upwards of $100,000. On the other slope are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and elude the public nightmare. In those broken public schools, Bowdon points out, it's pretty much inconceivable to fire an instructor -- so even a dreadful one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of different aspects of public education, tenure, funding, patronage drops, corruption --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics inside the education-reform drive."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationwide a year later. It nevertheless proceeds the more-recently released, although higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest stance, draws more interest to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained position means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. He follows the money to extract conclusions about how tainted the Jersey school system is, but his picture features moments of elevated emotion and heartache. One girl, weeping after learning she wasn't selected in a lottery for a charter school, tells the story of What Went Wrong as well as Bowdon's arguments.
And though there's an irony in this form of public depravity happening in a state famed for its organized crime, it's obvious that this is not an isolated collapse. Any watcher will realize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to select their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But "The Cartel" also shows us how laborious it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40727
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