"WAITING FOR SUPERMAN"
“A Must See Movie!” - official site and trailer
The United States is now the only industrialized country in which young people are less likely than their parents to earn a diploma. This isn't news to people who have been watching the slow and steady deterioration of the public school system for years. But what is amazing is how the filmmaker responsible for Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" has captured the problem in his new film "Waiting for Superman." Davis Guggenheim's movie captivates and explores the reasons behind the fact that for the first time in our history, the education skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents.
Waiting for Superman points out the many problems that plague our K-12 education system. There's no magic bullet to solve these problems, but we know that our kids can do better, that parents want the best for their kids and that we have some great teachers. However, what we have is an outdated bureaucracy controlled by special interests and protected by politicians.
Given all of that, it's really no surprise that out of the 30 industrialized countries, our United States students rank 26th in math, and 23rd in science and about the same in reading skills. Guggenheim points out these statistics in a very dramatic way and everyone who has a child, or pays taxes ought to take the time to see what he's saying.
The film is thought provoking, powerful and it supports what we at "Idahoans for Choice in Education" have been "preaching" for years in that we have an outdated bureaucratic system, protected by the our elected leaders and one that is geared to the adults, the special interests and not the kids, the parents or the taxpayers. It also points the "finger" at the primary culprit for our education problems and that is the NEA/AFT or the teacher's unions of this country. Correctly, it did not place the school problems on the teachers but it did place it where it rightfully belongs at the "feet" of the teacher's union! Here in Idaho that union, the Idaho Education Association, stifles education reform at every turn!
Who should see this movie and why? Most importantly every parent, so they can be made aware of the marginal education being delivered to their children by a fatally flawed education system.
Idaho taxpayers should be "mad as hell" that they have funded a system that has witnessed monumental increases in appropriations yet the performance of our education system continues to be marginal at best.
Policymakers should look at their voting record, at their own agenda and ask themselves some basic questions. Fundamentally, am I part of the solution or am I part of the problem? Policymakers must put kids first before special interests or politics.
Waiting for Superman, should be required viewing by all of our elected leaders and policy makers! It is those leaders that can and should make the changes that need to be made in order to bring an end to that flawed bureaucratic system, which unfortunately is the only education choice that most of our parents have.
