Documentary explores public education
By Laurel Rosenhall, Sacramento Bee
Political pressure on teachers unions has been mounting for months, with national attention focused on charter schools, merit pay and other approaches to education that unions generally hate.
Now the pressure is moving to the big screen in a manner sure to pervade the public consciousness in a whole new way. Three new documentary films explore public education, taking stances that have inflamed teachers unions and brought applause from organizations that support charter schools and other union-busting changes.
The films criticize tenure and highlight how difficult it is for school districts to fire bad teachers. They present the unions as a major cause of problems in America’s public schools. The solution, offered in two of the films through compelling stories of children trying to get into better schools through a lottery, is charter schools.
This is a very interesting and vital subject, that if we don’t get right will at best waste money, and at worst set us behind much of the modern world.
I’m going to try to watch at least the 2 films that are out.