Waiting for Superman

After seeing the new documentary "Waiting For Superman," I was reminded of what we used to say about the high school that I went to in the now-ramshackled collection of slums known as Mount Vernon, New York.

"It's not the students.  It's the principal of the thing."

When you walk away from this terrific film, you suddenly realize that the biggest problem with any public school system these days is the teachers union.  Your kid's education is held hostage by the ones standing at the front of the class.  Many of them are completely inept.  But, thanks to union restrictions, you can't get rid of them.   They are bedbugs with chalk.

Going into this movie, I was expecting a Michael Moore-like collection of half truths and lies about every Republican President since Abe Lincoln.  After all, the guy who directed this was also in charge of the bloated Al Gore's fibfest "An Inconvenient Truth."  I mean, how stilted and biased was this going to be?

Not very, I am happy to say.  Indeed, "Waiting for Superman" might be the most even-handed and unbiased documentary ever.  Well, shut my mouth.

When the filmmaker takes shots at the federal government, it's not just a Bush you see.  There's a Clinton, a Reagan, a Johnson, a Carter, and a Nixon.  Everyone is culpable when it comes to how shortchanged the public school systems of this nation have been.  Because, when the bell rings at the end of every day, it's the kids who are being rung up.  And left for dead.

The movie follows the plight of six youngsters who comes in varieties of colors and urban areas.  Just when you think this is going to become a training film for the NAACP, you're introduced to a white child or two in non-big city locations with schools that are just as screwed up.  A very smart approach that really makes the film resonate even more with all audiences.

The spotlighted kids are all looking for a better educational experience and they are all trying to get into a charter or magnet school which the filmmaker reasons is the ultimate answer for a lot of the public school woes.  Because, in those situations, you don't necessarily have to deal with the true villain of this piece.  The teachers' union.

We learn that teachers' unions across the country are the biggest contributors to political campaigns.  In the one biased comment, we hear that 90% of those dollars go to Democratic or liberal candidates.  Duh.  Nevertheless, in return for these donations, we get a union that has its boot on the throats of school children nationwide.  Tenure prevents us from getting rid of rotten teachers.  Restrictions prohibit teachers from being accountable to anybody.  And you wind up with "the Dance of the Lemons."

What's that?  Well, if a school has a rotten teacher, that person isn't terminated.  They're simply transferred to another school where they undoubtedly will fail again.  And over and over and over.  The lemon is passed from one school after another in a futile hope that, one day, this lemon will be able to make lemonade.

Naturally, the city of New York blows this up even more.  In the most egregious application of bureaucracy, the NY Public School System has what is called "the rubber room."  Incompetent and unwanted teachers are told to report to a central holding area where they sit five days a week, eight hours a day playing cards or reading the paper.  At full salary.  But they are totally protected by their union and they are essentially paid for not working.  This can last up to three years.

There are two adult heroes in this movie.  Some teacher named Geoffrey Canada has seen how the system failed and he starts a charter school in Harlem, attracting only those instructors who care.

And then there's Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the Washington DC public schools.  Please note that this city sports the worst public school system in the entire country and it should be no surprise why those two little Obama gnomes are in a private school.  Rhee takes a job that has been held by seven different people over the past decade.  Translation: they are all crooks.  Well, she recognizes where the problem is and devises a new system where teachers forfeit tenure for higher salary.  She wants to introduce a lot more accountability into the teachers union. 

So, it's no surprise to anyone when the union completely votes it down.  And, ultimately, kids are getting exactly what their parents' tax dollars paid for.

The last twenty minutes are a nail biter as you watch the youngsters endure bizarre lotteries in order to get into the charter or magnet school they want to go to.  With odds like 10 class slots for over 100 applicants.  When some of the kids don't get accepted, I could hear sniffling throughout the theater.  Gee, folks, I'm glad you're moved today.  Where were you last Election Day?

I thought about my own childhood school system.  Mount Vernon's Board of Education was a joke back when.  Now it's just one more example of political favors being served, money being misappropriated, and students getting the shaft.  When I was a kid, people charged that the all White school board was screwing over the predominantly Black student populace.  Ha!  Today, the all Black school board is still screwing over the totally Black student populace.

And now my own high school looks like nothing more than Rikers Island with blackboards.

"Waiting For Superman" has an amazing story to tell.  But, only if the audience decides that they have the power to relay the tale to others...

Dinner last night:  Cervelat sandwich and salad.