The American Spectator : The Cartel

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The Cartel

By James Bowman on 5.10.10 @ 6:02AM

A most timely exposé of the breathtaking corruption of New Jersey's teachers unions.

There is one scene in Bob Bowdon's movie, The Cartel, that ought to be required viewing for everyone who has ever voted Democratic, especially if you live in New Jersey. It is the scene of a lottery drawing for places in a Charter School in that state, which pays its teachers and the school administrators with which its educational system is top-heavy more than any other. Mr. Bowdon's camera shows us the faces of the parents and children who have been chosen for the school and the faces of those who have not. Both are in tears, but for the chosen ones, they are tears of joy; for those not chosen, they are tears of despair. "Thank you, God. They have a chance," says one of the lucky mothers who is overwhelmed by her good fortune. Mercifully, Mr. Bowdon allows the faces of those who have missed out on that chance -- yet again -- to speak for themselves.

This scene is singled out by Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times as being particularly "egregious" in a film that is already what she calls a "bludgeoning rant" and "lousy with ad hominems and emotional coercion." What she describes with sneering irony as "another tiny victim of public school hell" is to her just an example of the film-maker's "emotional coercion" -- as if he had managed to find a child actress who could cry on cue instead of turning his camera on a real-life tragedy to which Ms. Catsoulis and others of her political persuasion are determinedly blind. The same must be true of a majority of the voters of New Jersey, who year in and year out have allowed the vast pool of human misery of which this is just one small indication remain undrained in order that they may go on foolishly over-funding their public schools and the unions that run them for their own profit and convenience and congratulating themselves on their "progressivism" in doing so.

To those without any personal or political stake in the breathtaking corruption of the New Jersey teachers unions, however, I would think that it must be impossible to watch this scene without being moved. It's not as if nobody before Bob Bowdon knew that, in many inner-city schools, teachers and pupils are alike held hostage to thugs who will allow neither teaching nor learning to take place. Nor is it news to those who are not ignorant a-purpose that masses of those who have spent many years in such schools leave them utterly unprepared for the world of work. Yet you can't blame Mr. Bowdon's movie for acting as if this is all some unheard of outrage and not something that has been a feature of American urban life -- albeit not to the extent that it is now in New Jersey -- for a generation and more, if only people had cared to find out about it. For the most part, the people who go to movies today have not cared to find out about it.

That may be changing now as people are finally daring to inform themselves about how more and more money for public schools has only reinforced their failures. A few days after it published Ms. Catsoulis's scathing review of The Cartel the Times reported that, in New Jersey,

residents went to the polls in record numbers for the normally low-profile school- budget elections, and rejected 316 of the 541 budgets on the ballot. They were angered by higher property taxes that were sought to make up for unusually large state aid reductions proposed by Gov. Christopher J. Christie, along with resentment toward teachers' unions for not agreeing to wage freezes or concessions. The message of "enough is enough" resounded across the state, from urban to rural districts, and even in well-to-do suburban communities like Ridgewood, where residents are particularly proud of their schools. It was a drastic change from a year ago, when voters approved nearly three-quarters of the school budgets during the height of the economic downturn.

It appears that, partly as a result of the economic crisis and concomitant record-setting budget deficits, in New Jersey as elsewhere, education budgets are no longer sacrosanct. As a result, Governor Christie has been able to take on the teachers' unions as no holder of his office has done before, to some extent with the help of private sector unions who can only envy the teachers' ability to help themselves to whatever they want from public funds. It's only to be regretted that his efforts must seem to some hesitant and timorous compared to the root-and-branch approach warranted by the scandalous greed and waste that he is tackling.

Interestingly, the film begins with the establishment of Bob Bowdon's credentials for making such a powerful attack on such a powerful vested interest. They are that he is a local TV reporter in New Jersey! And, come to think of it, doesn't that carry more credence than he would if he were a professor in some school of education? Or, for that matter, some network news guy? Would anyone expect anything but a whitewash of what they know is corrupt from a scholar or academic, or from 60 Minutes? When you get far enough down the media food chain below the level of the New York Times, as far as to local TV reporters, you may finally begin to find those in the media who are capable of looking at things as they are, rather than through the ideological goggles that are increasingly the first equipment required of the élites.

Mr. Bowdon also does a good job of making plain the meaning of a welter of statistics concerning tax revenues, government spending on education, comparisons with other states and foreign countries on educational outcomes and so on, though to Ms. Catsoulis this amounts to nothing but "a laundry list of outrages -- like a missing $1 billion from a school construction budget" or "a clumsy montage of newspaper headlines detailing administrative graft." It's interesting to learn that New York Times reporters, like New Jersey politicians and school administrators before the Christie era, can afford to be so cavalier about "a missing $1 billion." The newspaper headlines didn't look like a "clumsy montage" to me, but if they were that must be supposed somehow to cancel out the "graft" they describe.

This movie is just one example, along with the reports of how they are furiously lashing out against Governor Christie, of how the New Jersey teachers are now running scared. This is an excellent thing for everyone not on their gravy train. Those with the political power of the teachers are likely to believe that they can simply hunker down and wait for a change in the political weather, and they may be right. Let us hope for the sake of that weeping child -- whose real emotion seems to the progressive New York Times like nothing but a dramatic construction of Mr. Bowdon's -- that their political contributions to the Democrats continue to be unavailing, in New Jersey and elsewhere. The outrage that The Cartel should provoke, even among the normally very progressive audience for documentaries, may well help.

About the Author

James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment

Humphrey Dumfries| 5.10.10 @ 9:06AM

Trailer and more movie info here:
http://www.thecartelmovie.com/

crookedwren| 5.10.10 @ 9:12AM

I'm weary from the rhetorical attacks made by the mainstream media, and my children's views of their native country and of capitalism have been corrupted by the public schools -- whose Marxist-leaning indoctrination has been supported by the Marxist-leaning media.

I'm so tired of it that I find it difficult to fight the battle -- in spite of the interminable number of examples such as the one in this article.

Thank God for such a filmmaker. Thank God for Christie.

Thank you, James Bowman, for bringing yet another example to the light.

Doctor Right| 5.10.10 @ 9:30AM

Until the people who are routinely victimized by the Democrats and the left - namely, inner city residents - stop voting for their victimizers at each and every election cycle , then this will NEVER change.

I have sympathy for these folks up to a point; after that, I simply can't find it in me to care. These are the same folks who voted in droves for Sharp James (former Newark Mayor, now in jail), Jim McGreevy, John Corzine, and Barack Obama, all of whom have been bought and paid for by the Teacher's unions.

Eric Cartman| 5.10.10 @ 10:02AM

Great minds think alike, Dr. Right. You can care up to a point, after that you have to sit back and laugh at the tragedy. If you don't, you'll cry.

Eric Cartman| 5.10.10 @ 9:52AM

When Eastern states (and the others who spawned from Eastern Liberal Group-Think) start voting Liberals out in large numbers, when they start voting for fiscal and political sanity in consecutive elections, I might be impressed. Until then, this is but a blip.

There is nothing like the Eastern Liberal. They carry around a deep hatred for people who may be against things like gay marriage if and when asked - even if it really isn't what the elections is about - that they consistently vote for the gay-rights supporting socialist who plans to do to their state the wreckage that is the reality now. It goes something like this:

Sane Person: And I plan to bring fiscal reality back to the (Liberal State Name Here). The schools and state systems are a mess and we need to deal with these fiscal problems now.

Liberal News Scumbag: Mr./Mrs. Candidate, what do you think about gay marriage?

Sane Person: I really don't think about it much, but we probably shouldn't have it. It may open the door to unanticipated consequences. But I have no problem with who people are. I just don't think about it that much.

Headlines: Candidate Sane Person Hates Gays! Says he/she would rather not think about them!

Collective Liberal Gasp: Well!, I'll show that right wing religious nut! I'm voting for Sam Socialist so he can push through Gay Marriage and anything else he wants. Screw Sane Person! I care more about how a guy being able to have anal sex than what my state will look like in 10 years. Hummmph! I'll show him!

And that is what passes for intelligent voting for Liberals. Let their states fall into Greece-like chaos and Mexico-like corruption. They deserve it.

Spike| 5.10.10 @ 10:38AM

Conservative Voter: Man, I usually don't like to get involved. I usually don't want to complain, but man, our State (country) is in disarray. If I don't stand up and let my voice be heard, what will there be left for my children and grandchildren. ENOUGH!

Spike| 5.10.10 @ 10:39AM

Liberal Media: Conservatives in the State are racist bigots.

Eric Cartman| 5.10.10 @ 10:52AM

I like it! Or they will say:

Area Man Only Thinks of His Own Family!

PolishKnight| 5.10.10 @ 10:55AM

I love to retort to leftists and liberals who claim it's the conservatives who refuse to "get out of their bedroom" that it's largely the policies of the left that have regulated and controlled personal sexual activity in the last 30 years:

Sexual harassment legislation, DV, IMBRA, and "child" support enforcement are either endorsed equally by the left or totally their brainchild.

As many lesbians have discovered, getting a divorce and child custody issues become miserable, expensive issues. In the old days, it used to be a joke that gays and lesbians at least AVOIDED the problems that heterosexuals face. Now they feel bad they can't share in them.

This is one of those clubhouse issues that the left decided to play with and buy into and that the right hasn't figured out yet is a paper tiger. Call their bluff and let them to go to "family" court. That'll "straighten them out" (pardon the pun).

Eric Cartman| 5.10.10 @ 11:03AM

I hate to break it to Liberals, I really don't want the image of what goes on in Helen Thomas' bedroom, or Barney Fwanks, for that matter, anywhere near my head. *Shiver* Eeesh! I think I just threw up in my mouth again.

Smith&Wesson40ACP;| 5.10.10 @ 9:54AM

Elites are as stupid does.

Heatpacker| 5.10.10 @ 10:11AM

I hope that his film helps to illuminate one of the essential truths of our time: that the Democrat Party is a criminal organization, dedicated to theft, graft, nepotism, extortion, payroll padding, and bribery. The activities of the New Jersey teachers unions (which are a branch of the New Jersey Democrat Party) would make your average Mafia Don proud.

blackwatch| 5.10.10 @ 11:46AM

Well now that they have run out of other people's money we may have a chance to strip the graft out of the system one district at a time. squeeze the easy money out of the system.

Let's start with eliminating the federal department of education and issuing a federal voucher to the parents of our school kids.

Parent's "FREEDOM OF CHOICE" should be our motto.

CopyKatnj| 5.10.10 @ 1:05PM

No really, here's today's headline from the largest newspaper in New Jersey, "N.J. Democrats to propose tax hike on those making more than $1M".

The progressive answer in NJ to any problem is to raise taxes. NJ is a state where the "rich" have been leaving in record numbers. NJ is taking the CA. solution, TAX then TAX then TAX some more.

Tony in Central PA| 5.10.10 @ 3:05PM

Maybe NJ, CT, NY et al should build walls around their states to prevent residents from fleeing.

Eric Cartman| 5.10.10 @ 3:43PM

LOL - Where do you sign up to help?

Richard Baker| 5.10.10 @ 4:35PM

As a former Math/Science teacher in Florida, I say close the public schools, give the money to the parents to find the best private/parochial school they can, and allow the kids to get a REAL education instead of the pap that is presently dispensed. The hell-raisers can continue to go to the public schools in screened rooms for all I care. These "children" are working on their future careers in Corrections, anyway.

Bruce| 5.10.10 @ 9:57PM

From your lips to God's ear, Richard.

Maddox| 5.10.10 @ 5:01PM

It is not just New Jersey where the education lobby is corrupt. Ask folks in Alabama about Paul Hubbard and the stranglehold they have had on the State and its politics for decades.
Here, in Montgomery and other areas, you can hope for a little education in the public sector or pay upwards of $10,000 for a private school.
Sadly most are doomed to the public sector and will be forever indoctrinated to depend on government and blame the evil rich.

Clinton nee Publius| 5.10.10 @ 8:07PM

The reality is that between 1963 and 2005, public education expenditures for primary and secondary schools in America rose 247% - in real dollars! For those of you who have to rely upon your public school education (like me), that means the teacher teleported from 1963 to the modern era would enjoy 2.47 times as many financial resources (adjusted for inflation) as they had in the classroom they just left behind.

What have we received for this stupendous increase in funding?

Complete failure.

It's a financial failure - public school tuition is, on average, more than double the tuition at the average private school and more than triple the average tuition of a parochial school. Can you find anyone who wants their kid to go to public school?

It's a literacy failure - we are supposed to teach our kids to read, write and perform arithmetic (remember the "3 R's"?). Today, the literacy rate in Costa Rica exceeds that of our once great country.

It's a human failure - our drop-out rate has risen more than 400% since 1963 and our teen pregnancy rate is not far behind. We failed our kids and we failed ourselves as these degenerate retards are the ones who are supposed to support us in our infirmity of age. We all know that's not going to happen now.

We have learned a very important lesson and yet we refuse to acknowledge the importance and immediate relevance of the lesson - as if we are the worst truants of all; liberal social welfare policies have turned out to be a complete failure. We tried very hard to make them work, but the heart of liberalism is corruption itself and corruption stains, pollutes and corrodes all that it touches. Our society has paid an incredibly heavy price for this malady and now we must find the courage to do what we all know we should have done 20 years ago; we have to privatize public education so we can save it.

The reality is that a lack of market competition has created this bloated liberal pussbag of corruption and only market competition can save it. Yet there is still good news and there is a new program that awaits our earnest efforts. It does not require great sacrifice just great conviction that the time for action has long passed us and we must now look to save what we can by doing what we should have already done.

Join me. Don't allow the media and the government to cover up this heinous crime against humanity and our own future. Join me and demand "The Fix - Education Plus" now be the standard for all educational programs at all levels. It's not just about our kids any more; now you have allowed all of us to fall into the morass and nothing less than all of our efforts will give us the morrow unstained by the corruption of liberalism's deleterious effects upon our shared destiny.

JMS| 5.11.10 @ 10:35AM

I take exception to your use of the pronoun "we" when noting all the failures. I worked in the public school system as a classroom and teachers' aid. I saw the system's failures first hand. I have argued with people all my adult life to get them to see the reality behind the curtain. Now that I have children, I homeschool them. There is only one solution to the ills of this country ~ complete and total deconstruction of the public school system and the government. A return to the basics of education, the tried-and-true elements that work every time they are tried, an end to the molly-coddling of children and special interests. Along with that, a return to the tenets of the original thinking of the Constitution and it's spirit. Make the "career politician" extinct and things like "education lobbies" will also go the way of the dodo.

Bruce| 5.10.10 @ 9:54PM

In his absolutely wonderful book "Liberty and Tyranny" - which btw should be required reading for anyone who thinks of himself as "conservative" - Mark Levin has this insightful passage:
"The Statist must also rely on legions of "academics" to serve as his missionaries. After a short period of training and observation, academics receive a sinecure - a personal stake in the state via lifetime employment through a system of tenure. The classroom is turned into a propaganda mill, rather than a place for education, to shape the beliefs and attitudes of successive generations of malcontents and incubate the quiet revolution against civilized society. Academics help identify enemies of the state, whom their students learn to distrust or even detest through distortion and repetition - corporations as polluters, the Founding Fathers as slave owners, the military as imperialistic, etc.
Academics claim to challenge authority but, in truth, preach authoritarianism through various justifications for and approaches to deconstructing the civil society. They talk of individual rights but ptomote collectivism. They talk of enfranchisement and suffrage, but promote judicial and administrative usurpation of republicanism. They talk of workers rights but promote the heavy taxation and regulation of labor. Indeed, academics portray Utopia as a kind of heaven on Earth but have a high tolerance for the hell of widespread misery. The academic knows from history, and better than most, the destructive power of the Statist's way."

Cite: "On prudence and Power", page 19, paragraphs 2 and 3.

John| 5.10.10 @ 10:10PM

Alas, but I think that Mr Baker has come close to nailing this issue. As a former teacher in the public sector, I can see some good in the public schools. But we are ALL missing the point here. It is a parental responsibility ( uh oh...that word must send shivers up a liberal"s spine...assuming there is one) to educate the children. If the public finds there is a need to educate the children let the taxpayers provide for that education at the choice of the parent. Somehow making a parent or parents pay additional money so the child is not being "taught" by some semi-literate "educator" is a najor affront. Frankly, I think that most teachers would do well in a competetive environment when aided by parental involvement. For the children who are on the way to "thuggery 101" in the public schools, it's just too sad and bad. When society stops making excuses for parental neglect and malfeasance and stops letting the loudmouthed agitators and "sheep" keep continuing their raids on the treasuries of communities,....well we might see a change. But that would take a public figure with a spine.

JMS| 5.11.10 @ 10:45AM

JOHN ~ I have to respect your honesty as a public school teacher criticizing the system, but I must disagree with your raising the bugaboo of "parent responsibility". It is a common canard of teachers to raise that complaint. Where is the responsibility of the teacher who knows a curriculum or special program (Anti-Bullying, for instance) is awful, disruptive, and a distraction from their actual task ~ educating children? No, you can't lay this on parents who themselves are victims of a system of indoctrination that creates a mindless adherence and acquiescence to authority. If a policeman does nothing to stop a mugger, you don't blame the victim or even the mugger, you blame the policeman. Government and the Education Industry are mugging our schools, it's the TEACHERS who, on the front line, bear the brunt of the responsibility for allowing it to happen, especially after programming us to accept them as "professionals".

WRJonas | 5.10.10 @ 10:57PM

I only read these comments for Eric Cartman's musings. I would love to put his and Ann Coulters writings in a feature section on Op Ed pages through out the land. Talk about stirring the pot!