International Cinema Festival of India

There’s money to be made in education, argues Bob Bowdon, but simply if you crop out the unprofitable bits, like expert teachers. In his documentary “The Cartel,” New Jersey TV news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the depravation and rapacity that has resulted in the disappearing of so much taxpayer money in that state. As $400,000 is spent per classroom, but reading proficiency is alone 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is unmistakable, which doesn’t signify it’s not controversial.

The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon’s film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer dollar into everything but teachers’ salaries — although a quantity of school administrators bring in upwards of $100,000. On the other side are the supporters of charter schools — private schools which can work beyond the influence of what Bowdon calls The Cartel. In those impoverished public schools, Bowdon points out, it’s virtually unacceptable to fire an instructor — so even a meager one has a career for life.

“‘The Cartel’ examines lots of unique aspects of public education, tenure, financing, patronage drops, subversion –meaning larceny — vouchers and charter schools,” says Bowdon. “The expression education documentary might sound to some like dull squared, but in fact the movie itself betrays an fervid passion for the quandary of particularly inner-city children.”

“The Cartel” started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut nearly a year later, in spring 2010. The movie has started a lot of discussion, which should no doubt persist with the more-recent release of “An Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim’s own education expose, “Waiting for Superman.” Bowdon sees the films as complementary, and hopes that “Superman,” with its human-interest ideology, draws more notice to his own, which focuses on public policy. “The two films attain parallel conclusions,” Bowdon says.

It is definitely analytical, couching its arguments in an assessment of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to describe conclusions around how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his picture features moments of soaring emotion and heartache. One girl, crying 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 while it may be straightforward to accept the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is a greatly familiar situation. Any watcher will acknowledge the failings of their own state’s education system and the fight 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 uphill battle to recover control from those who’ve worked so hard to make education very profitable for the very few.

The Cartel Movie, by filmmaker Bob Bowdon.