Secrets Regarding The Corrupt Public School System

The education system in America is working superbly, says Bob Bowdon, however just for a few — and those few definitely aren’t the students. In his education documentary “The Cartel,” Bowdon, a TV news reporter in New Jersey, paints a fantastic ugly impression of the institutional depravation that has resulted in nearly unbelievable wastes of taxpayer money. While $400,000 is exhausted per schoolroom, but reading proficiency is only 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is unmistakable, which doesn’t signify it’s not controversial.

At hand are two major factions in Bowdon’s movie — the villains are pretty 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 work outside the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it’s virtually unimaginable to fire an instructor — so even a shoddy one has a job for life.

“‘The Cartel’ examines lots of distinctive aspects of public education, tenure, backing, support drops, corruption –meaning theft — vouchers and charter schools,” says Bowdon. “The idiom education documentary can sound to some like dull squared, but in fact the film itself betrays an fervid passion for the predicament of particularly inner-city children.”

“The Cartel” first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters countrywide a year later. The picture has started a lot of talk, which should no doubt continue with the more-recent release of “An Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim’s own education expose, “Waiting for Superman.” 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 variation, more analytical,” Bowdon says, “‘Waiting for Superman’ is more the right-brained treatment.”

It is unquestionably analytical, couching its arguments in an assessment of how the money is being spent, or misspent. Though he calls it left-brained, still “The Cartel” reaches some unhappy moments of emotion. A girl’s crying upon hearing that she wasn’t selected to attend a charter school, that she’s stuck in her public school, portray the failure of a system as well as Bowdon’s charts and interviews.

It’s difficult to view a film about corruption in Jersey and not think of the mob, but it’s also obvious that this is a national difficulty seen through a tight lens. A spectator anywhere in the country will spot similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon’s frustration and avidness for a solution. Bowdon comes out in favor of the charter school plan, of taxpayers being able to choose their own schools, to get out from under the state’s control. But he also makes it plain that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight.

The Cartel Movie, a docudrama of the corrupt education system, by Bob Bowdon.