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.
On the one side is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and umbrageous school officials, who make certain that, as Bowdon points out in his film, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a shocking example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can operate outside the control of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's practically unimaginable for a teacher to be fired Thus giving them a safety net that does little to encourage hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they hold a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- 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 view a film about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unambiguous that this is a national crisis seen through a tight lens. Bowdon's film illustrates a local dilemma, but any watcher will discern the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. The one he seems to be most behind is the charter schools, which take the reins from the unions and give them back to the taxpayer. 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. - 40729
On the one side is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and umbrageous school officials, who make certain that, as Bowdon points out in his film, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a shocking example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can operate outside the control of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's practically unimaginable for a teacher to be fired Thus giving them a safety net that does little to encourage hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they hold a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- 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 view a film about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unambiguous that this is a national crisis seen through a tight lens. Bowdon's film illustrates a local dilemma, but any watcher will discern the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. The one he seems to be most behind is the charter schools, which take the reins from the unions and give them back to the taxpayer. 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. - 40729
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