The Truth Regarding The Failing Public Schools

The education method in America is working superbly, says Bob Bowdon, but only for a few -- and those few surely aren't the students. In his education docudrama "The Cartel," Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a notable ugly impression of the institutional corruption that has resulted in very nearly incredible wastes of taxpayer money. It's not toilsome for Bowdon to exemplify that something's execrably amiss 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 another question entirely.

Present 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 a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and shake off the public nightmare. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it's practically impossible for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who discern they hold a vocation regardless of how many of the three Rs they instruct -- if any.

Who's Got the Money?

"The film examines lots of different aspects of public teaching, tenure, backing, patronage drops, corruption -- meaning thievery -- vouchers and charter schools," says Bowdon. "The label education documentary might sound to some like dull squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an fervent 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. The film has started a lot of discussion, which must no doubt carry on with the more-recent release of "An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's own education expose, "Waiting for Superman." Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking dissimilar approaches to the same difficulty, "The Cartel" by examining public policy and "Superman" centering on the human-interest aspects. "My movie is the left-brained version, more analytical," Bowdon says, "'Waiting for Superman' is more the right-brained treatment."

Less Than the Sum of its Parts

And Bowdon's movie is relentlessly critical, making a powerful case for the opinion that the amount of money spent is nowhere near as crucial as how it is spent. But that isn't to say the movie is without heart. Bowdon makes sure his eye is at all times on the people affected, especially the inner-city students trapped in a shattered system. 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.

And though there's an irony in this form of public depravation happening in a state famed for its organized crime, it's obvious that this is not an isolated collapse. A watcher anyplace in the country will acknowledge similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon's frustration and avidness for a solution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of education. But he also knows it'll be an uphill struggle to retrieve control from those who've worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few. - 39468