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 monumental Jersey teachers union and shady school officials, who make certain 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 staggering example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and leave behind the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's principal criticisms is that a teacher, even a deficient one, basically can't be fired -- which provides zero effort to do much literal instruction.
"The documentary examines lots of out of the ordinary aspects of public education, tenure, backing, support drops, corruption --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the raging topics between the education-reform crusade."
"The movie first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationwide a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest angle. "My picture is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
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.
It's difficult to see a film about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unmistakable that this is a national problem seen through a tight lens. A watcher anyplace in the country will discern similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and eagerness for a resolution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward struggle to recover control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few.
On the one side is the monumental Jersey teachers union and shady school officials, who make certain 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 staggering example, a school board secretary who makes $180,000. On the other side are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and leave behind the public nightmare. One of Bowdon's principal criticisms is that a teacher, even a deficient one, basically can't be fired -- which provides zero effort to do much literal instruction.
"The documentary examines lots of out of the ordinary aspects of public education, tenure, backing, support drops, corruption --meaning theft -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the raging topics between the education-reform crusade."
"The movie first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationwide a year later. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released docudrama "Waiting for Superman," by "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest angle. "My picture is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
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.
It's difficult to see a film about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also unmistakable that this is a national problem seen through a tight lens. A watcher anyplace in the country will discern similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and eagerness for a resolution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. Nevertheless he also knows it'll be an upward struggle to recover control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few.
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