The education system in America is working magnificently, says Bob Bowdon, but just for some -- and those few definitely aren't the students. In his documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a New Jersey television news reporter, turns the camera on the monumental degeneracy and mismanagement that has led his state to use up more than any other on its students nevertheless with substandard results. It's not toilsome for Bowdon to exemplify that something's abominably awry with a state that pays $17,000 per pupil but can only wield a 39% reading proficiency rate -- that there's a crisis is undeniable, how to deal with it is different question entirely.
The two sides of this battle 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 -- though several school administrators bring in upwards of $100,000. 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 evade the public nightmare. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's just about unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to boost hard work in those teachers who understand they hold a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public education, tenure, financing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the heavy topics amongst the education-reform movement."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. It consequently proceeds the more-recently released, though higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking dissimilar approaches to the equal problem, "The Cartel" by examining public policy and "Superman" focusing on the human-interest aspects. "My film is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's picture is relentlessly acute, making a strong case for the belief that the amount of money spent is nowhere near as essential as how it is spent. But that isn't to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes certain his eye is constantly on the people affected, especially the inner-city students trapped in a wrecked system. A girl's tears 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 whilst there's a satire in this kind of public corruption happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's clear that this is not an isolated collapse. Bowdon's film illustrates a local dilemma, but any watcher will spot the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. But he also makes it undeniable that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40726
The two sides of this battle 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 -- though several school administrators bring in upwards of $100,000. 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 evade the public nightmare. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's just about unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to boost hard work in those teachers who understand they hold a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of various aspects of public education, tenure, financing, patronage drops, corruption --meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a swift-moving primer on all of the heavy topics amongst the education-reform movement."
Bowdon's docudrama started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. It consequently proceeds the more-recently released, though higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking dissimilar approaches to the equal problem, "The Cartel" by examining public policy and "Superman" focusing on the human-interest aspects. "My film is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."
And Bowdon's picture is relentlessly acute, making a strong case for the belief that the amount of money spent is nowhere near as essential as how it is spent. But that isn't to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes certain his eye is constantly on the people affected, especially the inner-city students trapped in a wrecked system. A girl's tears 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 whilst there's a satire in this kind of public corruption happening in a state renowned for its organized crime, it's clear that this is not an isolated collapse. Bowdon's film illustrates a local dilemma, but any watcher will spot the systems of system failure in their own state's schools. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. But he also makes it undeniable that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight. - 40726
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