The education mode in America is working swell, says Bob Bowdon, although just for some -- and those few definitely aren't the students. In his education docudrama "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a powerful ugly scene of the institutional putridness that has resulted in virtually incredible wastes of taxpayer money. It's not laborious for Bowdon to exemplify that something's appallingly incorrect 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 different question altogether.
The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a quantity of school administrators bring in upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can work beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those impoverished public schools, Bowdon points out, it's virtually unacceptable to fire an instructor -- so even a meager one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The phrase education documentary could sound to some like boring squared, but in fact the picture itself betrays an fiery passion for the plight of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. The picture has started a lot of talk, which ought no doubt persist with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest slant. "My film is the left-brained variant, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's movie is unrelentingly sharp, making a deep case for the notion that the sum of money spent is nowhere near as fundamental as how it is spent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his movie features moments of high emotion and heartbreak. The weeping face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
And although it may be simple to admit 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 spectator will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to select their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But he also knows it'll be an uphill battle to regain control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40732
The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon's film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers' salaries -- although a quantity of school administrators bring in upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can work beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those impoverished public schools, Bowdon points out, it's virtually unacceptable to fire an instructor -- so even a meager one has a career for life.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of uncommon aspects of public teaching, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The phrase education documentary could sound to some like boring squared, but in fact the picture itself betrays an fiery passion for the plight of particularly inner-city children."
"The Cartel" first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. The picture has started a lot of talk, which ought no doubt persist with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest slant. "My film is the left-brained variant, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's movie is unrelentingly sharp, making a deep case for the notion that the sum of money spent is nowhere near as fundamental as how it is spent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his movie features moments of high emotion and heartbreak. The weeping face of a youthful girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own deep controversy for the disappointing failure of a state's education system.
And although it may be simple to admit 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 spectator will acknowledge the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to select their own schools, to get out from under the state's control. But he also knows it'll be an uphill battle to regain control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few. - 40732
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