There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, therefore entirely if you cut out the unprofitable bits, like adept teachers. In his education docudrama "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a terrific ugly impression of the institutional degeneracy that has resulted in very nearly unbelievable wastes of taxpayer money. The numbers reveal the tale: $17,000 spent per pupil, and at hand's but a 39% reading proficiency rate, it's hard to reason that there's a crisis afoot, but harder to agree on a solution.
Here are two major factions in Bowdon's picture -- the villains are reasonably clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and towards incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. The other faction are the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can elude the influence of the public school system and would help inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more advisably used. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's well-nigh impossible for a teacher to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who discern they have a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public education, tenure, backing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The label education documentary can sound to some like dull squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an fervent passion for the predicament 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 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."
The left-brained stance means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. Whilst he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some unhappy moments of emotion. The tearful face of a young girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own strong argument for the dissatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And while it may be effortless to acknowledge the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is a greatly familiar condition. Any spectator will discern the failings of their own state's education system and the fight for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to choose their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But "The Cartel" also shows us how laborious it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40725
Here are two major factions in Bowdon's picture -- the villains are reasonably clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and towards incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. The other faction are the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can elude the influence of the public school system and would help inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more advisably used. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's well-nigh impossible for a teacher to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who discern they have a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public education, tenure, backing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The label education documentary can sound to some like dull squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an fervent passion for the predicament 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 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."
The left-brained stance means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. Whilst he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some unhappy moments of emotion. The tearful face of a young girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own strong argument for the dissatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And while it may be effortless to acknowledge the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is a greatly familiar condition. Any spectator will discern the failings of their own state's education system and the fight for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to choose their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But "The Cartel" also shows us how laborious it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40725
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