There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, but simply if you crop out the unprofitable bits, like expert teachers. In his documentary "The Cartel," New Jersey TV news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravation and rapacity that has resulted in the disappearing of so much taxpayer money in that state. As $400,000 is spent per classroom, but reading proficiency is alone 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is unmistakable, which doesn't signify it's not controversial.
The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a quantity of school administrators bring in upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can work beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those impoverished public schools, Bowdon points out, it's virtually unacceptable to fire an instructor -- so even a meager one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public teaching, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics inside the education-reform drive."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. Hopefully it will get a boost, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released documentary "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. 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. "The two films make equal conclusions," Bowdon says.
It is positively analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how shameless the Jersey school system is, but his film features moments of high 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 although it may be simple 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 very familiar situation. Any spectator will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to select their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But he also knows it'll be an uphill battle to regain control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40725
The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a quantity of school administrators bring in upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can work beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those impoverished public schools, Bowdon points out, it's virtually unacceptable to fire an instructor -- so even a meager one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public teaching, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the red-hot topics inside the education-reform drive."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. Hopefully it will get a boost, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released documentary "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. 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. "The two films make equal conclusions," Bowdon says.
It is positively analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how shameless the Jersey school system is, but his film features moments of high 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 although it may be simple 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 very familiar situation. Any spectator will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to select their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But he also knows it'll be an uphill battle to regain control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40725
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