There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, however entirely when you trim out the unprofitable bits, like good quality teachers. In his documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a New Jersey TV news newsperson, turns the camera upon the massive degeneracy and misdirection that has led his state to throw away more than any other on its students only with shoddy results. It's not difficult for Bowdon to illustrate that something's awfully improper with a state that pays $17,000 per student but can only wield a 39% reading proficiency rate -- that there's a crisis is undeniable, how to deal with it is different question altogether.
The two sides of this struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's movie: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to allocate 90 cents of every taxpayer buck into everything but teachers' salaries -- though' various school administrators make upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and get away from the public nightmare. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's practically impossible for a teacher to be fired. Thus having a safety net that does little to promote hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they hold a vocation regardless of how many of the three Rs they instruct -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of diverse aspects of public education, tenure, funding, support drops, subversion --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the blistering topics within the education-reform front."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationally a year later. It therefore proceeds the more-recently released, although higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking different approaches to the identical problem, "The Cartel" by examining public policy and "Superman" focusing on the human-interest aspects. "My film is the left-brained variant, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's picture is relentlessly acute, making a intense case for the feeling that the sum of money spent is nowhere near as pertinent as how it is spent. While he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some disheartening moments of emotion. The tearful face of an adolescent girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
It's difficult to watch a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also evident that this is a national predicament seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will recognize 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 choose their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. However he also knows it'll be an upward struggle to retrieve control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40728
The two sides of this struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's movie: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to allocate 90 cents of every taxpayer buck into everything but teachers' salaries -- though' various school administrators make upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and get away from the public nightmare. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's practically impossible for a teacher to be fired. Thus having a safety net that does little to promote hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they hold a vocation regardless of how many of the three Rs they instruct -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of diverse aspects of public education, tenure, funding, support drops, subversion --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the blistering topics within the education-reform front."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationally a year later. It therefore proceeds the more-recently released, although higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking different approaches to the identical problem, "The Cartel" by examining public policy and "Superman" focusing on the human-interest aspects. "My film is the left-brained variant, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's picture is relentlessly acute, making a intense case for the feeling that the sum of money spent is nowhere near as pertinent as how it is spent. While he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some disheartening moments of emotion. The tearful face of an adolescent girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
It's difficult to watch a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also evident that this is a national predicament seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will recognize 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 choose their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. However he also knows it'll be an upward struggle to retrieve control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40728
About the Author:
Philadelphia Inquirer: The Cartel, A failing grade for NJ schools, a film by Bob Bowdon.
No comments:
Post a Comment