The education system in America is working aptly, says Bob Bowdon, but just for a few -- and those few surely aren't the students. In his education docudrama "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a remarkable ugly impression of the institutional corruptness that has resulted in just about incredible wastes of taxpayer money. When $400,000 is spent per classroom, but reading proficiency is just 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is apparent, which doesn't indicate it's not controversial.
Present are two major factions in Bowdon's film -- the villains are pretty clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and toward incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of a charter school 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 almost inconceivable to fire a teacher -- so even a mediocre one has a job for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of out of the ordinary aspects of public education, tenure, funding, support drops, corruption --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The expression education documentary possibly could sound to some like dry squared, but in fact the film itself betrays an ardent passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationally a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking alternative approaches to the similar problem, "The Cartel" by examining public policy and "Superman" centering on the human-interest aspects. "The two films make parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. He follows the money to extract conclusions about how crooked the Jersey school system is, but his picture features moments of high emotion and broken heartedness. The weeping face of an adolescent girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the dissatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And although there's a satire in this sort of public depravity happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's unambiguous that this is not an isolated collapse. Bowdon's film illustrates a local predicament, but any watcher will recognize the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. But he also makes it accurate that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40727
Present are two major factions in Bowdon's film -- the villains are pretty clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and toward incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of a charter school 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 almost inconceivable to fire a teacher -- so even a mediocre one has a job for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of out of the ordinary aspects of public education, tenure, funding, support drops, corruption --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The expression education documentary possibly could sound to some like dry squared, but in fact the film itself betrays an ardent passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationally a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking alternative approaches to the similar problem, "The Cartel" by examining public policy and "Superman" centering on the human-interest aspects. "The two films make parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. He follows the money to extract conclusions about how crooked the Jersey school system is, but his picture features moments of high emotion and broken heartedness. The weeping face of an adolescent girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the dissatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And although there's a satire in this sort of public depravity happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's unambiguous that this is not an isolated collapse. Bowdon's film illustrates a local predicament, but any watcher will recognize the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. But he also makes it accurate that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40727
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