The Truth About The Collapsing Of The Education System
There’s money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, therefore only if you clip away the unprofitable bits, like fantastic teachers. In his docudrama “The Cartel,” New Jersey television news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the corruptness and rapacity that has resulted in the disappearing of so much taxpayer money in that state. The numbers convey the tale: $17,000 spent per pupil, and there’s but a 39% reading proficiency rate, it’s tricky to contend that there’s a crisis afoot, but harder to agree on a solution.
Present are two major factions in Bowdon’s movie — 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 that can operate beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it’s almost unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they have a vocation irrespective of how many of the three Rs they teach — if any.
“‘The Cartel’ examines lots of diverse aspects of public education, tenure, financing, patronage drops, corruption –meaning theft — vouchers and charter schools,” says Bowdon. “The expression education documentary may sound to some like dull squared, but in fact the picture itself betrays an ardent passion for the predicament 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. It however proceeds the more-recently released, while higher profile, education documentary “Waiting for Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”). 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. “My film is the left-brained version, more analytical,” Bowdon says, “‘Waiting for Superman’ is more the right-brained treatment.”
It is without doubt analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. But that isn’t to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes certain his eye is at all times on the people affected, particularly the inner-city students trapped in a shattered system. The tearful face of an adolescent girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own great argument for the dissatisfactory failure of a state’s education system.
And whilst there’s a satire in this kind of public depravation happening in a state notable for its organized crime, it’s obvious that this is not an isolated collapse. Any viewer will realize the failings of their own state’s education system and the fight for control. 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 obvious that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a struggle.
The Cartel, a docudrama of the corrupt education system, by Bob Bowdon.
