The education method in America is working magnificently, says Bob Bowdon, however only for some -- and those few definitely aren't the students. In his documentary Bowdon, a New Jersey TV news newsman, turns the camera on the monumental corruption and misdirection that has led his state to expend more than any other on its students just with meager results. It's not troublesome for Bowdon to exemplify that something's atrociously incorrect 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 separate question entirely.
On the one side is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and shady school officials, who guarantee that, as Bowdon points out in his picture, 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 function beyond the power of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it's very nearly impossible to fire an instructor -- so even a dreadful one has a job for life.
"The movie examines lots of unique aspects of public education, tenure, backing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The label education documentary possibly could sound to some like ho-hum squared, but in fact the film itself betrays an fiery passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released documentary "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 interest to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films make exchangeable conclusions," Bowdon says.
The left-brained approach means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. He follows the money to extract conclusions about how shameless the Jersey school system is, but his picture features moments of elevated emotion and grief. A girl's weeping upon hearing that she wasn't selected to attend a charter school, that she's stuck in her public school, exemplify the failure of a system as well as Bowdon's charts and interviews.
And though it may be simple to accept the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is a very familiar situation. Any watcher will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the struggle for control. 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.
On the one side is the monolithic Jersey teachers union and shady school officials, who guarantee that, as Bowdon points out in his picture, 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 function beyond the power of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it's very nearly impossible to fire an instructor -- so even a dreadful one has a job for life.
"The movie examines lots of unique aspects of public education, tenure, backing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The label education documentary possibly could sound to some like ho-hum squared, but in fact the film itself betrays an fiery passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released documentary "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 interest to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films make exchangeable conclusions," Bowdon says.
The left-brained approach means arguments that watch the economics -- money misspent, opportunities wasted. He follows the money to extract conclusions about how shameless the Jersey school system is, but his picture features moments of elevated emotion and grief. A girl's weeping upon hearing that she wasn't selected to attend a charter school, that she's stuck in her public school, exemplify the failure of a system as well as Bowdon's charts and interviews.
And though it may be simple to accept the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is a very familiar situation. Any watcher will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the struggle for control. 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.
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