Last night I was privileged to attend the Colorado premiere of The Lottery at the Harkins Theatre in Northfield. Like nearly all in the genre, it’s a movie with a point of view: Massive reform involving greater parental choice and alternative school models is desperately needed to provide children with greater opportunities – especially young people of color and in poverty.
Set in Harlem and featuring four families trying to get their students into one of Eva Moskowitz’s Harlem Success Academy charter schools, the themes evoked by the film and its central character nevertheless reflect broader concerns in American urban education. And, in many cases, it struck more universal chords of parental determination to obtain the best education for their children. A similar film easily could have been made with Hispanic parents trying to enroll their students in West Denver Prep, for example.
The movie is excellent, but that doesn’t make it easy to watch. Getting a close-up view of the respective families’ challenges and aspirations, combined with some deep-seated political tensions, is heart-wrenching – even more so personally as the father of two small children. Without providing any spoilers, all I can say is you’ll find the ending all too realistic and less than completely satisfying.
While it’s the children and their parents who are the most compelling stars of The Lottery, New York reform leaders Moskowitz and Geoffrey Canada, along with Newark Mayor Cory Booker, fill in the gaps to make the larger case for reform. Former New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum does a workable job as the foil, but many of her arguments against charter school expansion and defending union prerogatives ring as hollow as the shrinking political opposition to school choice throughout the nation.
After the movie aired, an all-star panel featuring Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien, outgoing House Speaker Terrance Carroll, DPS Board President Nate Easley and Denver School of Science and Technology CEO Bill Kurtz tackled some provocative questions from moderator Van Schoales. Many of the panelist comments helped to provoke some deeper thinking about education reform and to reinforce the movie’s call to action. Nevertheless, I did have a couple objections:
1. Yes, teachers unions aren’t the sole obstacle to meaningful reform, but it’s impossible to deny the major role they play – as evidenced by the United Federation of Teachers at PS 194 in the film. I listened astutely but heard none of the panelists as much as mention the word union during the post-film discussion. I’d like to think it was more an oversight than a lack of the kind of moral courage impressed upon viewers by the makers of the film.
2. We should have a discussion about whether more resources are needed to deliver a top-notch K-12 education, and what that should look like. But a couple of the panelists misstated (perhaps inadvertently) some facts about Colorado education spending. School Finance Act per-pupil revenue for 2009-10 is $7,241 (not $6,000) – and this money doesn’t include categorical spending, mill levy overrides, and a host of federal program spending (Colorado’s current per-pupil spending is closer to $9,000, and total per-pupil spending is north of $11,000). Also, it was asserted that Colorado ranks 49th in K-12 funding. Simply not the case.
Nevertheless, I had a great time and highly recommend the film. If you missed the premiere of The Lottery, don’t delay to find a theater near you. There’s no sitting back and waiting for change to come, not any more.
Other insightful reviews by:
- Education Sector’s Chad Aldeman and Erin Dillon
- The Heritage Foundation’s Rachel Sheffield (including the two-minute trailer to watch)
Popularity: 5% [?]
Ben, thank you for writing this review of the film. I had the pleasure of seeing it in Colorado Springs on Tuesday night. The film is well made and brings out so many emotions in the viewer. It inspires me to work harder for quality school choice!
And you are right about the union…their protests are so shallow and transparent. Eva Markowitz is one tough lady and we need more leaders like her in education!
I have really never found anything from the Heritage Foundation worth reading but I thought, I’ll give Ben the benefit of the doubt. From the Heritage link: “The film also seeks to dispel the myth that children are failing because parents don’t care. As The Lottery reveals, there are many parents who are willing to fight for their children’s education. However, a broken system provides little chance at accomplishing that. The Lottery’s message will hopefully bring families one step closer to achieving that goal.”
Yeah, I can see the film tries to dispel the myth but I’m not buying it. Check the literal meaning of the first sentence in the quote. Go ahead, check it. Then, in the second sentence we read about “many” parents. And by the third sentence, we find to no one’s surprise it’s the gosh darned system that has failed the kids. So right. Wing.
Well, to be fair, a lot of lefties think the system sucks as well.
Maybe the real lottery in life is one far more profound than getting into a life or death school –the ovarian lottery, as Warren Buffet says. The one in which birth color plays still plays a large role in the probability of social mobility.
Why did the panel include only charter school advocates? The “reforms” they seem to seek actually perpetuate the status quo of authoritarian top-down policy making, testing and blaming low scores on teacher performance. That’s been the drum beat from the far right and their corporate sponsors since the 1970s, early in my teaching career. Valid research shows that the only successful reform movements in public education are those that are bottom up. All players must be involved – students, parents, teachers, administrators and community members – and the goal must be to provide a comprehensive education for the common good. Being that charter schools are available to a select few, how can they serve the common good?
Edward…GREAT! Let’s make them available to ALL! I see charter schools and other reforms finally beginning to put a chink in the armor of the public school bureaucracy. What could be more “bottom up”? What you describe is exactly what happens in charter schools and what is happening more in traditional schools with site based management.
jj—the “ovarian lottery”? Hmm. Okay. Did you notice that all four of the beautiful children depicted in the film were black? I never can quite figure out your type of argument. It seems to me based on the idea that because 100% of the kids aren’t getting a top notch education choice then no one should. Charter schools are a largely grassroots movement (bottom up, again as Edward wants to see). And I would sure rather see the kids in the successful Harlem charter schools (or Denver) getting that good education than all of them getting a bad one! The teachers’ union should be ashamed for fighting against the expansion of a program that is working! Harlem Success needs more space to accomodate kids on their wait lists. But the union saw to it that they were denied. So those kids on the list will stay on the list and they’ll stay in bad schools. Am I supposed to celebrate? Sorry.
Yes, Donnell, that’s nice. That wasn’t my argument. Why of course, I want no one to have a decent education unless all do. Sheesh.
Besides, it’s not like charter schools have a great track record anyway. There is no real solution for education reform. A thousand small ones? There may not even be a need for reform. Sometimes, I think we should just give up on reforming schools. Just back away from the political avarice from trying to reform education and give teachers the freedom to do their thing.
Findlandize American education?