There's money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, but entirely if you snip out the unprofitable bits, like skillful teachers. In his documentary "The Cartel," Bowdon, a New Jersey television news newsman, turns the camera upon the massive corruption and misdirection that has led his state to expend more than any other on its students just with shoddy results. It's not toilsome for Bowdon to illustrate that something's awfully wrong 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 entirely.
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 that can function outside the control of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's practically impossible for a teacher to be fired, a safety net that does little to court hard work in those teachers who comprehend they have a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of distinctive aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, support drops, corruption --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the blistering topics amongst the education-reform movement."
"The Cartel" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut pretty much a year later, in spring 2010. It however proceeds the more-recently released, while higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest angle. "The two films reach parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
And Bowdon's movie is relentlessly acute, making a deep case for the notion that the amount of money spent is nowhere near as essential as how it is spent. Whilst he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some unhappy moments of emotion. One girl, crying 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.
It's difficult to see a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also clear that this is a national dilemma seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will recognize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. However he also knows it'll be an upward battle to retrieve 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 that can function outside the control of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's practically impossible for a teacher to be fired, a safety net that does little to court hard work in those teachers who comprehend they have a career regardless of how many of the three Rs they teach -- if any.
"'The Cartel' examines lots of distinctive aspects of public teaching, tenure, financing, support drops, corruption --meaning thieving -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "And as such it kind of serves as a rapid-moving primer on all of the blistering topics amongst the education-reform movement."
"The Cartel" started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut pretty much a year later, in spring 2010. It however proceeds the more-recently released, while higher profile, education documentary "Waiting for Superman," directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"). Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim's taking the human-interest angle. "The two films reach parallel conclusions," Bowdon says.
And Bowdon's movie is relentlessly acute, making a deep case for the notion that the amount of money spent is nowhere near as essential as how it is spent. Whilst he calls it left-brained, still "The Cartel" reaches some unhappy moments of emotion. One girl, crying 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.
It's difficult to see a movie about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it's also clear that this is a national dilemma seen through a tight lens. Any watcher will recognize the failings of their own state's education system and the battle for control. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. However he also knows it'll be an upward battle to retrieve control from those who've worked so intense to make education very profitable for the very few.
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