There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, nevertheless merely when you snip away the unprofitable bits, like talented teachers. In his education documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a terrific ugly impression of the institutional corruption that has resulted in just about unbelievable wastes of taxpayer money. The numbers put in the picture the tale: $17,000 exhausted per student, and there's just a 39% reading proficiency rate, it's tricky to reason that there's a crisis afoot, but harder to concur on a resolution.
On the one aspect is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shady 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 stupefying example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and evade the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's principal criticisms is that an instructor, even a terrible one, essentially can't be fired -- which provides zero hustle to do much actual instruction.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public education, tenure, financing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- 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."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. Hopefully it will get a boost, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "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 picture is the left-brained edition, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's picture is relentlessly acute, making a strong case for the belief that the amount of money spent is nowhere near as essential as how it is spent. But that isn't to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes certain his eye is constantly on the people affected, especially the inner-city students trapped in a wrecked system. A girl's tears upon hearing that she wasn't selected to attend a charter school, that she's stuck in her public school, exemplify the failure of a system as well as Bowdon's charts and interviews.
And though there's an irony in this kind of public corruption happening in a state famed for its organized crime, it's evident that this is not an isolated collapse. A viewer anyplace in the country will recognize similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and readiness for a solution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. But "The Cartel" also shows us how backbreaking it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40723
On the one aspect is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shady 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 stupefying example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and evade the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's principal criticisms is that an instructor, even a terrible one, essentially can't be fired -- which provides zero hustle to do much actual instruction.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public education, tenure, financing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- 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."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. Hopefully it will get a boost, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "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 picture is the left-brained edition, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's picture is relentlessly acute, making a strong case for the belief that the amount of money spent is nowhere near as essential as how it is spent. But that isn't to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes certain his eye is constantly on the people affected, especially the inner-city students trapped in a wrecked system. A girl's tears upon hearing that she wasn't selected to attend a charter school, that she's stuck in her public school, exemplify the failure of a system as well as Bowdon's charts and interviews.
And though there's an irony in this kind of public corruption happening in a state famed for its organized crime, it's evident that this is not an isolated collapse. A viewer anyplace in the country will recognize similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and readiness for a solution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. But "The Cartel" also shows us how backbreaking it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40723
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