International Cinema Festival of India

The school system could be made to be overly profitable, says Bob Bowdon, although exclusively at the expense of things like teachers and students. In his docudrama “The Cartel,” New Jersey TV news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravity and greed that has resulted in the disappearance of so much taxpayer money in that state. The numbers tell the tale: $17,000 exhausted per student, and there’s but a 39% reading proficiency rate, it’s tough to argue that there’s a crisis afoot, but harder to agree on a solution.

Present are two major factions in Bowdon’s movie — 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 operate beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. Bowdon makes much of the fact that it’s almost unimaginable for an instructor to be fired, a safety net that does little to incite hard work in those teachers who acknowledge they have a vocation irrespective of how many of the three Rs they teach — if any.

“‘The Cartel’ examines lots of diverse aspects of public education, tenure, financing, patronage drops, corruption –meaning theft — vouchers and charter schools,” says Bowdon. “The expression education documentary may sound to some like dull squared, but in fact the picture itself betrays an ardent passion for the predicament of particularly inner-city children.”

“The Cartel” first appeared on the festival circuit in summer 2009, appearing in theaters nationwide a year later. It consequently proceeds the more-recently released, though higher profile, education documental “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. “My movie is the left-brained edition, 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 certain his eye is at all times on the people affected, in particular the inner-city students trapped in a broken system. One girl, weeping after discovering 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 whilst there’s a satire in this kind of public depravation happening in a state notable for its organized crime, it’s obvious that this is not an isolated collapse. Any viewer will realize the failings of their own state’s education system and the fight for control. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. But he also makes it obvious that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a struggle.

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