The school system may be made to be exceedingly profitable, says Bob Bowdon, although just at the expense of things resembling teachers and students. In his education documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a gravid ugly impression of the institutional putridness that has resulted in pretty much unbelievable wastes of taxpayer money. It's not arduous for Bowdon to exemplify that something's appallingly haywire with a state that pays $17,000 per pupil but can only manage a 39% reading proficiency rate -- that there's a crisis is undeniable, how to deal with it is another question entirely.
On the one side is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and shadowy school officials, who guarantee 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 atrocious example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. 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 shake off the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's main criticisms is that a teacher, even a shoddy one, essentially can't be fired -- which provides zero incentive to do much actual teaching.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of distinctive aspects of public education, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the raging topics between the education-reform front."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest position, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained edition, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained manner means arguments that observe the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is perpetually on the people affected, in particular the inner-city students trapped in a disordered system. The tearful face of an adolescent girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own potent argument for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And while it may be straightforward to admit the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is a vastly familiar situation. A watcher anyplace in the country will discern similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and zeal for a solution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. However he also knows it'll be an upward battle to regain control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40729
On the one side is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and shadowy school officials, who guarantee 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 atrocious example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. 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 shake off the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's main criticisms is that a teacher, even a shoddy one, essentially can't be fired -- which provides zero incentive to do much actual teaching.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of distinctive aspects of public education, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the raging topics between the education-reform front."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest position, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "My film is the left-brained edition, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
The left-brained manner means arguments that observe the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. But that isn't to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is perpetually on the people affected, in particular the inner-city students trapped in a disordered system. The tearful face of an adolescent girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own potent argument for the unsatisfactory failure of a state's education system.
And while it may be straightforward to admit the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is a vastly familiar situation. A watcher anyplace in the country will discern similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and zeal for a solution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. However he also knows it'll be an upward battle to regain control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40729
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San Francisco Chronicle: The Cartel Movie, advocates a new kind of classroom. A film by Bob Bowdon.
