The Cartel - Americas Education System Examined

The Cartel - Bob Bowdon discuses his new documentary The Cartel a powerful account of Americas education system:

Bob Bowdon, a veteran broadcaster, decided after doing severalstories centering on the New Jersey Public Education system that enoughwas enough.

Along with his experiences and those of a friend who changed jobsfrom journalist to school teacher, Bowdon decided that it was time tochronicle what he saw in a documentary.

The result, made over two years and on Bowdons own bank account, isThe Cartel, a powerful account of mismanagement, overspending andintimidation prevalent in Americas education systemwith New Jersey asthe prime example cited for all of these ills.

During a recent stop to Philadelphia, Bowdon, who is next producingand hosting a PBS series in which teams debate each other oncontroversial topics, discussed the films journey to theaters and histhoughts about a broken education system which sends people out of highschool illiterate, has three-quarters of college level kids unable tofind Middle Eastern countries on a map and ranks 474th in the world inmath scores.

Movie FanFare: You use New Jersey as an example of a failededucation system. What can the country learn from the mistakes NewJersey has made?

Bob Bowdon: New Jersey has been the biggest spending state. Whateveryone can learn is that money doesnt equal quality. There areinputs people and outputs people. (The state says): We must be foreducation because we spent so much. Everybody knows you can hire abunch of people and have them sit around and fill out forms and itdoesnt affect a kids learning. So I know the issues are the same allover. New Jersey is our case study and preaches that if you thinkthrowing money is the answer, think again.

MFF: Has New Jersey Governor John Corzine seen this?

BB: I havent offered to show it to him because I presumed if he wanted to see it, hed find a way.

MFF: What triggered this project?

BB: Ive been a TV reporter that covered educational stories. Therewere these anecdotal stores that were not connected. An outrage here,or a terrible principal there, or millions of dollars disappearsomewhere else. What had not been done is tell the story in one picturewith all of these comparisons in the movie and how there are higherbudgets with no increase in performance by education to the students.On TV, weve seen some of the individual stories.

The final catalyst was my friend, a TV producer who got a job as aninner city high school English teacher. I said, This has got to be adocumentary. Theres too much here. Leaving aside whether I am greator terrible as a filmmaker, this kind of expose has never been donebefore. Maybe there is some obscure film out there that someone willpresent to me. But as far as I know it hasnt been done, even thougheducation is one of the key topics in the country, without sounding toograndiose. So the catalyst was my friend who was an English teacher.

MFF: Even though you had some prominent education figures appear inthe film, did you find many people reticent to speak to you abut thissubject on-camera?

BB: There are people all the time who come to me at film festivalswho are outraged and tell me their personal stories. I ask them if theywould do it on camera, and they say No, I cant do it on camera. Theymay be in the union, or their spouse may work for a school. They areafraid to speak out. You dont have to scratch the surface too far toknow there are people afraid to speak out. Call up six people and askthem to speak their mind and youll learn there are fear andintimidation in something as innocuous and wholesome as the publicschool system. That said, nonetheless we also did get a lot of people(to speak).

MFF: You focused primarily on schools in troubled cities likeCamden, Newark and Trenton, but isnt there another story to tell fromother schools in more settled neighborhoods?

BB: I am interested in improving public policies and I think thefilm goes to where the need is greatest. There are storiesof whichthere are many and we could have easily doneit would have taken timeaway from the real disasters going on elsewhere. If we looked at theother schools, then people may say its steady as she goes. But it is ared alert disaster in some of these worst schools, so for me to profilethe happy, it didnt make sense.

MFF: The Cartel is quite critical of the teachers unions role inthe problems as you show them protecting bad teachers and principalsand other acts that are harmful to a childs education.

BB: We take great pains to distinguish teachers unions with otherkinds of unions. When GM negotiates with the United Auto Workers, UAWdoesnt have a strong hand in running General Motors, who they arenegotiating with. But the teachers unions have a huge hand in selectingwho they give money to for the school board. Then the school boardselects the superintendent with whom they negotiate. So they create ascenario where the superintendent with whom they agree is the one whogets appointed by school board members seated through elections theyhave helped financed. Its a different kind of union then every otherunion in the country.

I believe in schools where the parent can leave their kid in a unionschool that could be their choice, or if they want to put their kid ina private school that doesnt have a union, that should be theirchoice. If a private school decides to unionize its teachers, then thatshould be their choice. I am not pro- or anti- union philosophically,as long as there is choice. The problem is if there is a monopoly andthere is only one choice, and you have to go there if you are a poorperson. Thats where the problem comes from.