The school system possibly could be made to be exceptionally profitable, says Bob Bowdon, although exclusively at the expense of things like teachers and students. In his education documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a reasonably ugly impression of the institutional putridness that has resulted in pretty much incredible wastes of taxpayer money. As $400,000 is spent per classroom, but reading proficiency is alone 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is unmistakable, which doesn't indicate it's not controversial.
On the one side is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shadowy 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 upsetting example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. The other cabal is the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can shake off the authority of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more cautiously used. In those broken public schools, Bowdon points out, it's almost unacceptable to fire a teacher -- so even a meager one has a trade for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of individual aspects of public education, tenure, backing, support drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics inside the education-reform drive."
Bowdon's documentary started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. It therefore proceeds the more-recently released, while higher profile, education docudrama "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest ideology, draws more interest to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained variant, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is invariably on the people affected, specially the inner-city students trapped in a damaged system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own potent argument for the dissatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And whilst it may be straightforward to acknowledge the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is an extremely familiar condition. Any watcher will discern the failings of their own state's education system and the struggle for control. 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 comprehensible that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40723
On the one side is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shadowy 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 upsetting example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. The other cabal is the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can shake off the authority of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more cautiously used. In those broken public schools, Bowdon points out, it's almost unacceptable to fire a teacher -- so even a meager one has a trade for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of individual aspects of public education, tenure, backing, support drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics inside the education-reform drive."
Bowdon's documentary started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. It therefore proceeds the more-recently released, while higher profile, education docudrama "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest ideology, draws more interest to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained variant, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is invariably on the people affected, specially the inner-city students trapped in a damaged system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own potent argument for the dissatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And whilst it may be straightforward to acknowledge the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is an extremely familiar condition. Any watcher will discern the failings of their own state's education system and the struggle for control. 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 comprehensible that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40723
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