There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, therefore simply when you snip out the unprofitable bits, like good quality teachers. In his education documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a grand ugly picture of the institutional corruption that has resulted in virtually incredible wastes of taxpayer money. It's not toilsome for Bowdon to illustrate that something's atrociously awry 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 another question altogether.
Here are two major factions in Bowdon's movie -- the villains are pretty clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and toward incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools that can work beyond the authority of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's pretty much impossible for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to encourage hard work in those teachers who understand they have a vocation regardless of how many of the three Rs they instruct -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, backing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the raging topics amongst the education-reform cause."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationally 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 sees the two documentaries as taking alternative approaches to the identical predicament, "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."
It is undoubtedly analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is continually on the people affected, chiefly the inner-city students trapped in a shattered system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own intense argument for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
It's hard to observe a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unambiguous that this is a national predicament seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the struggle 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 difficult it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40728
Here are two major factions in Bowdon's movie -- the villains are pretty clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and toward incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools that can work beyond the authority of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's pretty much impossible for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to encourage hard work in those teachers who understand they have a vocation regardless of how many of the three Rs they instruct -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, backing, patronage drops, subversion --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it sort of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the raging topics amongst the education-reform cause."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationally 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 sees the two documentaries as taking alternative approaches to the identical predicament, "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."
It is undoubtedly analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. But that isn't to say the picture is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is continually on the people affected, chiefly the inner-city students trapped in a shattered system. The tearful face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own intense argument for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
It's hard to observe a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unambiguous that this is a national predicament seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the struggle 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 difficult it's going to be to get that control back from those who've found it so profitable. - 40728
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