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.
There 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 toward incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. The other faction are the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can get away from the authority of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more sensibly used. One of Bowdon's primary criticisms is that a teacher, even a bad one, fundamentally can't be fired -- which provides zero ambition to do much actual instruction.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, backing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a fast-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics within the education-reform campaign."
"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 whilst it may be simple to admit the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is an extremely familiar situation. Any spectator will realize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. The one he seems to be most behind is the charter schools, which take the reins from the unions and give them back to the taxpayer. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward battle to get back control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40723
There 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 toward incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. The other faction are the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can get away from the authority of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more sensibly used. One of Bowdon's primary criticisms is that a teacher, even a bad one, fundamentally can't be fired -- which provides zero ambition to do much actual instruction.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, backing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a fast-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics within the education-reform campaign."
"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 whilst it may be simple to admit the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is an extremely familiar situation. Any spectator will realize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. The one he seems to be most behind is the charter schools, which take the reins from the unions and give them back to the taxpayer. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward battle to get back control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40723
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