Anyone who has ever voted Democratic in the state of New Jersey should be made to watch a particular scene on a documentary film about the state's education cartel. The scene is about a lottery drawing for places in one of New Jersey's charter schools. The audience is shown faces of children whose names have been drawn and their parents, and faces of children who were not so fortunate. Although both are crying, there is a stark contrast to their expressions. Those who were chosen were crying tears of joy and those who were not...well, you would have to see it to fully appreciate the point.
Jeannette Catsoulis, a movie critic for the New York Times, describes the scene as a result of the movie director's "emotional coercion," and goes on to saying that the weeping child as "another tiny victim of public school hell," as if not being chosen to get a good education is something trivial.
I think that it would be impossible for anyone who does not get any personal or political gain from the cartel's control over New Jersey's education system to watch the scene and not be moved by it. It is not something new that students and teachers both fall victim to a system that is indifferent to the fact that teaching and learning do not take place in many schools. It is not something new that there is an increasing number of these students that leave schools unprepared to work and function in the real world. But you cannot blame the director for presenting facts concerning the issue as if it is new, as if nobody has done anything to alleviate it yet.
It is encouraging to note that since the movie came out, people have started taking steps in keeping themselves informed about how more and more of the taxpayers' money and government funds are being allotted and spent by the cartel on education. On a recent school-budget election in New Jersey, residents rejected over half of the budgets on the ballot.
It seems that education budgets are not revered anymore in New Jersey. And because of that, Governor Christopher J. Christie was able to take on the teachers' unions. Although it is regrettable that his efforts on fighting the cartel might seem halfhearted compared to his undiscriminating approach to the waste and greed he is undertaking.
It is worth to note that at the beginning of the film, the director's credibility to tackle such a powerful issue is immediately established-after all, doesn't being a local TV reporter in New Jersey carry more reliability in exposing the truth than any other profession?
The director also makes it easy for the audience to understand the flurry of statistics concerning education funding by the government, tax revenues, comparisons of New Jersey educational outcomes with other states and other countries, and so on.
The New Jersey teachers are in a panic now, as evidenced by this movie and the countless reports about how they are berating Governor Christie. Hopefully, the movie does not inspire only the cartel on education to act, but also those who have yet to do something about alleviating it. We owe the countless children who feel exactly the same as the weeping child in the movie that much.
Jeannette Catsoulis, a movie critic for the New York Times, describes the scene as a result of the movie director's "emotional coercion," and goes on to saying that the weeping child as "another tiny victim of public school hell," as if not being chosen to get a good education is something trivial.
I think that it would be impossible for anyone who does not get any personal or political gain from the cartel's control over New Jersey's education system to watch the scene and not be moved by it. It is not something new that students and teachers both fall victim to a system that is indifferent to the fact that teaching and learning do not take place in many schools. It is not something new that there is an increasing number of these students that leave schools unprepared to work and function in the real world. But you cannot blame the director for presenting facts concerning the issue as if it is new, as if nobody has done anything to alleviate it yet.
It is encouraging to note that since the movie came out, people have started taking steps in keeping themselves informed about how more and more of the taxpayers' money and government funds are being allotted and spent by the cartel on education. On a recent school-budget election in New Jersey, residents rejected over half of the budgets on the ballot.
It seems that education budgets are not revered anymore in New Jersey. And because of that, Governor Christopher J. Christie was able to take on the teachers' unions. Although it is regrettable that his efforts on fighting the cartel might seem halfhearted compared to his undiscriminating approach to the waste and greed he is undertaking.
It is worth to note that at the beginning of the film, the director's credibility to tackle such a powerful issue is immediately established-after all, doesn't being a local TV reporter in New Jersey carry more reliability in exposing the truth than any other profession?
The director also makes it easy for the audience to understand the flurry of statistics concerning education funding by the government, tax revenues, comparisons of New Jersey educational outcomes with other states and other countries, and so on.
The New Jersey teachers are in a panic now, as evidenced by this movie and the countless reports about how they are berating Governor Christie. Hopefully, the movie does not inspire only the cartel on education to act, but also those who have yet to do something about alleviating it. We owe the countless children who feel exactly the same as the weeping child in the movie that much.
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Sparta Independent: The Cartel movie had interesting points. A film by Bob Bowdon.
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