By Cheri Rae
Can a filmmaker be more powerful than a handful of presidents, hundreds of legislators, thousands of school administrators and millions of parents?
Let’s hope so.
Let’s hope that filmmaker Davis Guggenheim has told another inconvenient truth that will resonate with viewers in the same way that his previous, wildly popular, Academy Award-winning global warming documentary featuring Al Gore spurred them into action and awareness.
“Waiting for Superman” takes on America’s public school system—a noble idea gone terribly wrong in the past several decades. In doing so, Guggenheim examines how politicians on both sides of the aisle from Nixon, Ford, Bush I and Bush II, to Johnson, Carter, and Clinton have made efforts to improve public education, but have largely failed.
Since the 1970s, American students have fallen far behind other countries; today we rank 25th in math and 21st in science. While we may lack knowledge and skills, we do rank Number One in one category, though: confidence.
Note: “Waiting for Superman” is in limited release in the Los Angeles area; a special screening in Santa Barbara is scheduled for Thursday night at the Metro Paseo Nuevo Cinemas at 7:30.
In the documentary, experts from across the country refer to public education to as “a behemoth of bureaucracies,” “an academic sinkhole,” and “a blind eye to injustices to kids in the name of harmony among adults.” In the most scathing portions of the film, Guggenheim examines the stranglehold the unions have on public education, and how tenure virtually guarantees a job-for-life-even for the 6% to 10% of the worst teachers.
And study after study proves that more than any other factor, it’s the quality of the classroom teacher that most contributes to academic success—or failure. And removing the worst teachers is nearly impossible.
He notes that 1 in 57 bad doctors, 1 in 97 bad lawyers are removed from their professions, but nationwide, only 1 in 2,500 bad teachers are ever removed from the classroom.
He describes the “dance of the lemons,” also called the “turkey trot” and “pass the trash,” how principals get together annually to move around the worst teachers in a district—and how other teachers are simply allowed to sit around in “rubber rooms,” while they collect their salaries and benefits while they await administrative hearings.
It’s impossible for a parent to sit in the audience and not be moved by the personal stories of five beautiful children featured in the film—each with hopes, curiosity, potential and support at home—as their futures are determined by economics and geography, and in far too many cases, just plain luck. The excruciating scenes of lotteries to get into charter schools illustrate the unfairness of it all, and the promise of charter schools that in many parts of the country offer independent thinking free of bureaucratic constraints.
Most of all, “Waiting for Superman” leaves the viewer informed and inspired by the work of dogged education innovators like Geoffrey Canada (who spoke in Santa Barbara last spring); Washington, D.C. Chancellor of Education Michelle Rhee; the Gates Foundation’s philanthropist Bill Gates. And at the same time, it leaves the viewer with many questions about the kind of education their own children are getting right here in Santa Barbara.
We shouldn’t be too smug. Just last Thursday night, at a forum for school board hopefuls the “achievement gap” was discussed at length, but there wasn’t a word spoken about supporting or establishing achievement-oriented charter schools; the role of the teachers union; how tenure affects the quality of teaching, or what part luck plays in the education of our children.
Too bad it conflicts with the Assembly race forum in Goleta and the CPA – EDC forum on oil at the Mus. of Nat. History. Do you know if they plan on a SB stay?
This is a very thoughtful review; kudos to Cheri Rae. It’s a crime that the local version of this – the injustice, unfairness, corruption, and waste of taxpayer money going on in our local schools – is something no Democratic politician will touch. This is because the Dem’s campaigns are funded by these unions and the school administrative interests. As a Democrat, I sadly find that the only hope for the schools comes from the Republicans’ focus on taxpayer accountability. Our community being “liberal” turns out to be a bad thing for our local schools, as they are supporting institutions that are almost hopelessly corrupt. How times change…
Okay, SBParent, as a fellow Democrat, but not enamoured of the teachers unions and wanting to help the schools, whom do you recommend I vote for on the school committee?
To local anon: I’m voting for Loren Mason. He’s the only one that hasn’t accepted union campaign funds, according to a statement he made at a candidate’s forum – which was not contradicted by the other Board candidates particpating in the forum.
Every citizen should see “Waiting for Superman.” This documentary is not only for parents the contents effect the whole country. If the schools do not teacher a student to read and write the tax payer goes on paying through out the students life. Our prison system eats up our taxes, the majority of adult prisoners are functionaly iliterate. Drug free programs are full of iliterate teens and adults. The homeless shelters Students who have learning disabilties can claim $950.00 a month from social security and they can keep taking socail security into adult hood. I don’t think that money goes to tutoring the child. The tax payers are being duped by our public school system and money wasted of disfunctional special eduaction programs which are baby sitting classrooms.
“Waiting for Superman” shows the public what is really happening in our schools. The documentary shows black students in Washingon D.C. and Los Angeles schools but the same games are taking place today and have been for over twenty years in the county of Santa Barbara and the hispanic students are suffering.
Please look closely when you vote for new school board members. Ask them how many have taken union funds and then go and see “Waiting for Superman.”
Look carfully