The school system might be made to be remarkably profitable, says Bob Bowdon, but at the expense of things equivalent to teachers and students. In his docudrama "The Cartel," New Jersey television news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravity and rapacity that has resulted in the disappearance of so much taxpayer money in that state. It's not troublesome for Bowdon to illustrate that something's awfully amiss with a state that pays $17,000 per student 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 monumental Jersey teachers union and shadowy school officials, who make sure that, as Bowdon points out in his movie, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a ghastly example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. The other cabal is the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can get away from the influence of the public school system and would assist inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more carefully used. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's very nearly unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to attract hard work in those teachers who recognize they hold a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they instruct -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of diverse aspects of public teaching, tenure, backing, support drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The title education documentary possibly could sound to some like dry squared, but in fact the picture itself betrays an fiery passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut very nearly a year later, in spring 2010. It therefore proceeds the more-recently released, while higher profile, education documental "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest approach, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films reach equivalent conclusions," Bowdon says.
It is positively analytical, couching its arguments in an assessment of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to represent conclusions around how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his film features moments of elevated emotion and broken heartedness. A girl's tears upon hearing that she wasn't selected to attend a charter school, that she's stuck in her public school, illustrate the failure of a system as well as Bowdon's charts and interviews.
It's difficult to see a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also clear that this is a national dilemma seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will recognize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. However he also knows it'll be an upward battle to retrieve control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40731
On the one side is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shadowy school officials, who make sure that, as Bowdon points out in his movie, 90 cents of every tax dollar go for other expenses, including six figure incomes for school administrators and, in a ghastly example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. The other cabal is the supporters of charter schools, the private schools that can get away from the influence of the public school system and would assist inner-city kids if their taxpayer money could be more carefully used. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's very nearly unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to attract hard work in those teachers who recognize they hold a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they instruct -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of diverse aspects of public teaching, tenure, backing, support drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The title education documentary possibly could sound to some like dry squared, but in fact the picture itself betrays an fiery passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut very nearly a year later, in spring 2010. It therefore proceeds the more-recently released, while higher profile, education documental "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest approach, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films reach equivalent conclusions," Bowdon says.
It is positively analytical, couching its arguments in an assessment of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to represent conclusions around how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his film features moments of elevated emotion and broken heartedness. A girl's tears upon hearing that she wasn't selected to attend a charter school, that she's stuck in her public school, illustrate the failure of a system as well as Bowdon's charts and interviews.
It's difficult to see a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also clear that this is a national dilemma seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will recognize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. However he also knows it'll be an upward battle to retrieve control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40731
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