There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, however exclusively when you crop out the unprofitable bits, like fantastic teachers. In his documentary "The Cartel," New Jersey TV news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravity and greed that has resulted in the disappearing of so much taxpayer money in that state. The numbers declare the tale: $17,000 exhausted per pupil, and there's just a 39% reading proficiency rate, it's hard to argue that there's a crisis underway, but harder to agree on a solution.
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" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut nearly a year later, in spring 2010. The movie has started a lot of discussion, which should no doubt persist with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest ideology, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films attain parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
It is positively analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how shameless the Jersey school system is, but his film features moments of high emotion and heartache. One girl, weeping after learning she wasn't selected in a lottery for a charter school, tells the story of What Went Wrong as well as Bowdon's arguments.
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" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut nearly a year later, in spring 2010. The movie has started a lot of discussion, which should no doubt persist with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that "Superman," with its human-interest ideology, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films attain parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
It is positively analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to draw conclusions about how shameless the Jersey school system is, but his film features moments of high emotion and heartache. One girl, weeping after learning she wasn't selected in a lottery for a charter school, tells the story of What Went Wrong as well as Bowdon's arguments.
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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