International Cinema Festival of India

The education method in America is working magnificently, says Bob Bowdon, although only for a few — and those few surely aren’t the students. In his docudrama “The Cartel,” New Jersey TV news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravation and greed that has resulted in the disappearing of so much taxpayer money in that state. It’s not toilsome for Bowdon to exemplify that something’s abominably awry with a state that pays $17,000 per student 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.

Here are two major factions in Bowdon’s picture — 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 slope are the supporters of a charter school system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and shake off the public nightmare. One of Bowdon’s chief criticisms is that a teacher, even a deficient one, basically can’t be fired — which provides zero motivation to do much genuine instruction.

“‘The Cartel’ examines lots of distinct aspects of public education, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion –meaning thievery — vouchers and charter schools,” says Bowdon. “The label education documentary could sound to some like ho-hum squared, but in fact the film itself betrays an fiery passion for the predicament of particularly inner-city children.”

Bowdon’s documentary started touring the festival circuit in summer of 2009 and made its theatrical debut in April 2010. Hopefully it will get a rise, and not be overshadowed, by the more recently released documental “Waiting for Superman,” by “An Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim. Bowdon sees the two documentaries as taking alternative approaches to the identical predicament, “The Cartel” by examining public policy and “Superman” focusing on the human-interest aspects. “My film is the left-brained variant, more analytical,” Bowdon says, “‘Waiting for Superman’ is more the right-brained treatment.”

It is undoubtedly 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 sure his eye is constantly on the people affected, principally the inner-city students trapped in a damaged system. The tearful face of a young girl who learns she was not selected for a spot at a charter school makes its own great argument for the unsatisfying failure of a state’s education system.

And while it may be straightforward to accept the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that this is a greatly familiar condition. Any watcher will acknowledge the failings of their own state’s education system and the battle for control. The one he seems to be most behind is the charter schools, which take the reins from the unions and give them back to the taxpayer. But he also knows it’ll be an upward struggle to retrieve control from those who’ve worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few.

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