The education system in America is working right, says Bob Bowdon, but simply for some -- and those few surely aren't the students. In his docudrama "The Cartel," New Jersey TV news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravity and avarice that has resulted in the disappearance of so much taxpayer money in that state. When $400,000 is exhausted per schoolroom, but reading proficiency is but 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is clear, which doesn't mean it's not controversial.
On the one aspect is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and umbrageous school officials, who guarantee that, as Bowdon points out in his picture, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a staggering 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 power of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more sensibly used. In those impoverished public schools, Bowdon points out, it's just about impossible to fire an instructor -- so even a mediocre one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of different aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The label education documentary could sound to some like boring squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an ardent passion for the plight of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest position, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained edition, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained approach means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the film is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is invariably on the people affected, in particular the inner-city students trapped in a disordered system. The tearful face of a young girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own great debate for the unsatisfying failure of a state's education system.
And although there's an irony in this kind of public depravity happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's evident that this is not an isolated collapse. Bowdon's film illustrates a local problem, but any viewer will spot the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. But he also makes it reliable that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a struggle. - 40725
On the one aspect is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and umbrageous school officials, who guarantee that, as Bowdon points out in his picture, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a staggering 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 power of the public school system and would aid inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more sensibly used. In those impoverished public schools, Bowdon points out, it's just about impossible to fire an instructor -- so even a mediocre one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of different aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The label education documentary could sound to some like boring squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an ardent passion for the plight of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest position, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained edition, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained approach means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the film is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is invariably on the people affected, in particular the inner-city students trapped in a disordered system. The tearful face of a young girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own great debate for the unsatisfying failure of a state's education system.
And although there's an irony in this kind of public depravity happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's evident that this is not an isolated collapse. Bowdon's film illustrates a local problem, but any viewer will spot the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. But he also makes it reliable that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a struggle. - 40725
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