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 struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's picture: 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 several school administrators receive upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can operate beyond the power of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it's practically inconceivable to fire a teacher -- so even a dreadful one has a trade 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."
"The Cartel" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut nearly a year later, in spring 2010. The movie has started a lot of discussion, which should no doubt persist with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest ideology, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films attain parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
And Bowdon's movie is unrelentingly sharp, making a deep case for the notion that the sum of money spent is nowhere near as fundamental as how it is spent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his movie features moments of high emotion and heartbreak. The weeping face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
And whilst there's an irony in this kind of public corruption happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's evident that this is not an isolated collapse. Any spectator will realize 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 he also makes it comprehensible that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a struggle. - 40728
The two sides of this struggle meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's picture: 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 several school administrators receive upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can operate beyond the power of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it's practically inconceivable to fire a teacher -- so even a dreadful one has a trade 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."
"The Cartel" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut nearly a year later, in spring 2010. The movie has started a lot of discussion, which should no doubt persist with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest ideology, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films attain parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
And Bowdon's movie is unrelentingly sharp, making a deep case for the notion that the sum of money spent is nowhere near as fundamental as how it is spent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his movie features moments of high emotion and heartbreak. The weeping face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
And whilst there's an irony in this kind of public corruption happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's evident that this is not an isolated collapse. Any spectator will realize 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 he also makes it comprehensible that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a struggle. - 40728
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