International Cinema Festival of India

Something fishy is definitely going on when the state can afford to shell out around $400,000 annually for each classroom but the quality of students in terms of learning is at an all-time low. What manner of outrageous mockery is this? Could it be the fault of some type of educational cartel? The following details may serve to validate it indeed.

The statistics themselves are enough to dishearten anyone… nearly 80% of graduates from high school who actually manage to take up further schooling in college need some form of remedial lessons. Students who enter college should already be capable enough already academically as long as their fundamentals are sound. If that was not bad enough, the current educational system is the main culprit for this shortcoming.

There is a saying that a nation’s hope lies in the youth. That will be all for naught if the people in charge care little for ensuring that the youth in this generation are schooled properly. There will simply be no hope left.

The culprit here is the New Jersey Education Association. The group is primarily a teachers’ union with the noble task of molding the minds and the educating the youth in public schools across the state. It wields considerable political influence and it has massive influence. One would think that proper education would be the focus but sadly, it is not. This union acts in ways that show it to be only after personal enrichment using state funds and to perpetuate generations of students who will always lack a good education. This despite increasing funds allotted for the improvement of learning curriculums. It seems the funds have only proceeded into the pockets of an unscrupulous few in the group.

There has been news on the unscrupulousness of one of the union members in a particular district where misappropriating the school/state funds is of no consequence. A person who holds the rank of a school board secretary has been earning $180,000 annually simply because of the union’s influence. The absurdly large salary is not in keeping with what is proper… especially when the students are not progressing, as they should.

Students with their bright and inquisitive minds cannot hope to thrive in conditions such as these. Even incompetent teachers cannot be sanctioned, much less replaced, because the union is coddling them. On the other hand, good teachers and idealistic educators are being harassed and challenged because they will not conform to this shoddy system. Some have had to face dismissal from their jobs for doing what was right.

This does not bode well for the public school system at all. The union acts like a money-hungry cartel intent only with siphoning state funds to the detriment of quality education. It is a wonder that this type of corruption has not been exposed and the perpetrators sanctioned already.

There remains a sliver of hope, however. Charter schools are taking up the slack that the current system is loath to address and the results are promising. These schools are showing that they can outperform the existing district schools much to the cartel’s chagrin. However, it is still a long way to go for these charter schools. The current bureaucracy is not very amiable towards them and makes it quite difficult for the schools to progress further. Until the time comes for the public to finally put an end to the unbalanced trend in education, many more young minds will continue to suffer because of the lack of a good education.

GOOD Education story of The Cartel Movie, a film by Bob Bowdon.