The school system could be made to be overly profitable, says Bob Bowdon, although exclusively at the expense of things like teachers and students. In his docudrama "The Cartel," New Jersey TV news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravity and greed that has resulted in the disappearance of so much taxpayer money in that state. The numbers tell the tale: $17,000 exhausted per student, and there's but a 39% reading proficiency rate, it's tough to argue that there's a crisis afoot, but harder to agree on a solution.
Present are two major factions in Bowdon's movie -- the villains are reasonably clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and towards incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools that can operate beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's almost unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they have a vocation irrespective of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of distinctive aspects of public education, tenure, backing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The title education documentary may sound to some like boring squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an ardent passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. It however proceeds the more-recently released, while 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 approach, draws more notice 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."
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 movie is without heart. Bowdon makes certain his eye is at all times on the people affected, in particular the inner-city students trapped in a broken system. One girl, weeping after discovering 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 although it may be effortless to admit the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is a greatly familiar situation. Bowdon's film illustrates a local difficulty, but any watcher 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 uphill conflict to recover control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40727
Present are two major factions in Bowdon's movie -- the villains are reasonably clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and towards incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools that can operate beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's almost unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they have a vocation irrespective of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of distinctive aspects of public education, tenure, backing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The title education documentary may sound to some like boring squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an ardent passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. It however proceeds the more-recently released, while 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 approach, draws more notice 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."
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 movie is without heart. Bowdon makes certain his eye is at all times on the people affected, in particular the inner-city students trapped in a broken system. One girl, weeping after discovering 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 although it may be effortless to admit the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is a greatly familiar situation. Bowdon's film illustrates a local difficulty, but any watcher 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 uphill conflict to recover control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40727
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