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.
At hand are two major factions in Bowdon's film -- the villains are reasonably clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and towards incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can maneuver beyond the control of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's very nearly unimaginable for a teacher to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who know they possess a vocation regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'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."
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 boost, 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 approach, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films make equal 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.
At hand are two major factions in Bowdon's film -- the villains are reasonably clearly the Jersey teachers union and school board who funnel 90 cents of every dollar away from teachers' salaries and towards incidentals, including six-figure salaries for school administrators. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools -- private schools which can maneuver beyond the control of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's very nearly unimaginable for a teacher to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who know they possess a vocation regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'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."
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 boost, 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 approach, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. "The two films make equal 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.
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