Filmmaker triumphs with documentary on education woes

"Although I support the public education system, each morning I grudgingly drive past three public schools in order to drop my kids off at the private school that they are currently enrolled in."

Davis Guggenheim, the director for the new documentary Waiting for Superman, said these words to open the film and one can't help but chuckle at the blatant contradiction.

Guggenheim, who directed other hard-hitting documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth, attempts to shed light on the flaws of the public education system in America by following the lives of five families who either do not have the opportunity to attend private school or who refuse to put their kids into their district's public school system out of fear.

These families are left only with the option to enter into a charter school "lottery." Applicants are accepted into charter schools solely on the basis of getting their number selected in a bingo rally.

The message that the movie delivers is powerful, suggesting that the statistics reported about the education system and that changes in school budgets don't affect just numbers. These statistics affect real people with names and lives.

Waiting for Superman denounces two flaws on the American public education. First, teachers unions accounted for some of the largest monetary contributions in the 2007-2008 political campaigns. Second, the Washington Teachers Union (WTU) assisted by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) organized a vote holdout, surrendering their tenure rights in exchange for a new salary plan proposed by D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. The plan increases teachers' salaries up to the amount of $140,000 on a merit-based system

Guggenheim does not address some of the important aspects of education, such as standardized testing, and some scenes do more to look at the negative aspects of education rather than suggest how to alleviate the issues at hand.

Nevertheless, he successfully offers up a broad perspective of the current way that American education is being funded and organized. From the resounding sniffles in the movie theatre audience as John Legend's song "Shine," ran through the credits, one couldn't help but give Guggenheim a silent "bravo" for the making of the film.