The Cartel (1:32) 2009

The Cartel is a documentary by a Bob Bowden, a former New Jersey television newscaster. The focus of The Cartel is to examine the current state of public education. Bowden focuses in on the school systems of the largest cities in New Jersey. He looks at the roles of teachers' unions and it is not a complimentary look. Bowden discusses corruption of school boards, both financial corruption and through nepotism. A large part of the documentary looks at vouchers, charter and magnet schools. A wide variety of people are interviewed including politicians, parents, teachers, administrators, education researchers and the president of the NJEA. The Cartel really slams teachers' unions and being a member of one, it was hard for me to hear. When looking at the date presented that shows huge drop out rates and low percentages of student proficiency rates in reading and math, it is easy to admit we have a badly broken education system. As a society, we are failing students but not providing them with the skills they will need to succeed as adults. All the stakeholders need to continue the conversations and put our schoolhouses in order.