The school system could be made to be very much profitable, says Bob Bowdon, but at the expense of things equal to teachers and students. In his education documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a grand ugly impression of the institutional corruptness that has resulted in almost incredible wastes of taxpayer money. As $400,000 is spent per schoolroom, but reading proficiency is no more than 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is evident, which doesn't indicate it's not controversial.
The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's picture: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to apportion 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- while a quantity of school administrators earn upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter school system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and leave behind the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's principal criticisms is that a teacher, even a shoddy one, fundamentally can't be fired -- which provides zero reason to do much actual teaching.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, support drops, corruption --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a quick-moving primer on all of the heavy topics amongst the education-reform movement."
"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."
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. Although he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some heartbreaking moments of emotion. The weeping face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own intense debate for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And whilst it may be straightforward 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 highly familiar situation. Bowdon's film illustrates a local crisis, but any viewer will recognize 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 unambiguous that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40730
The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's picture: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to apportion 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- while a quantity of school administrators earn upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter school system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and leave behind the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's principal criticisms is that a teacher, even a shoddy one, fundamentally can't be fired -- which provides zero reason to do much actual teaching.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, support drops, corruption --meaning larceny -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a quick-moving primer on all of the heavy topics amongst the education-reform movement."
"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."
The left-brained method means arguments that follow the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. Although he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some heartbreaking moments of emotion. The weeping face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own intense debate for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And whilst it may be straightforward 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 highly familiar situation. Bowdon's film illustrates a local crisis, but any viewer will recognize 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 unambiguous that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40730
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