Filmmaker Bob Bowden interviews a New Jersey woman in ‘The Cartel.’There’s something wrong with America’s education system, and filmmaker Bob Bowden starts his new documentary, The Cartel, examining the roots and potential solution to those problems like any good doctor, first attempting to diagnose and define the problem. His findings — that our reading and math scores are abysmal, and our dropout rates staggering — come as no surprise, but it’s a necessary setup for his task of finding out why this is the case, and what can be done about it.
New Jersey spends more than any other state on education, and Bowden uses them as a representative sample for the nation, showing the reasons why simply throwing money into the system is no guarantee of better results. With teacher salaries making up only a fraction of the cost per classroom, he demonstrates how more money doesn’t always mean more money for teachers, and effectively outlines how wasteful administrative practices in the Garden State waste billions that could be helping kids. It’s a strong and compelling start.
By the time he’s gotten past administrative waste, and into political corruption, tenure, unions, and patronage, he’s painted a rage-inducing picture of systemic injustice, a “cartel” of politics and money that is destroying the chances of a young generation of Americans at getting the education to which they have a right. It’s mostly a strong case, at least as far as Jersey goes. Unfortunately, he’s rarely able to argue effectively for the universality of many issues. In fact, on a number of occasions, he goes out of his way to show how problems he’s outlining are unique to New Jersey. Without a case for the universality of these problems, it’s hard to argue for a cure-all solution. Nevertheless, he makes that leap, spending most of the rest of the movie touting vouchers and school choice as the answer to all of our problems.
But this amateurish, ultimately poorly argued documentary isn’t likely to convert many of those on the fence. And proponents of vouchers will want to think twice before choosing this film as the champion of their cause.
