Protecting Academic Failure: “The Lottery” Exposes Politicians’ & ACORN/Unions’ Influence on Public Schools’ Failure & Charter Schools’ Success for Minority Children (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on June 7, 2010
The one-day-showing-only documentary film The Lottery follows for several months four families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a charter school lottery.
Out of thousands of hopefuls, only a small minority will win the chance of a better future at a charter school. Public schools in these poor communities, despite billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars being channeled to them, have consistently failed to teach children, whereas charter schools in Harlem and other cities have succeeded. This documentary explores why.
Here’s the trailer.
From Liberty Chick, ‘The Lottery’: New Documentary Dares to Question ACORN/Labor Union Infestation of Public Schools:
A new hard-hitting documentary entitled, “The Lottery,” from director Madeleine Sackler premieres tomorrow, for one night only, in theaters across the country. The focus of the film is the battle for the future of our nation’s children over education.
“In a country where 58% of African-American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, The Lottery uncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. The Lottery follows four of these families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a charter school lottery. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only a small minority will win the chance of a better future.”
And at the core of that battle is a network of special interests; a coalition of community groups, labor unions, and politicians, all working together to hold onto power and control, while losing sight of the children; the future of our country.
The inner workings of such a web are little known or understood to most, even to some of those close to the system. To understand how powerful this network is, first you need to be extremely observant. And then, you need to go right to the source. Within no time, many of the issues that stand in the way of reforming our public education system become as clear as the most perfect of ocean waters on a sunny day.
For years, labor unions like the SEIU and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), in partnership with community organizations like ACORN and their sister organization, the Working Families Party, have opposed the implementation of or the expansion of charter schools. After seeing stats like those above, if you didn’t know these groups, you’d wonder why.
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With tentacles spread across varying levels of local government, ACORN has made it a practice to ensure its interests are protected at all costs. Even if that could mean that students may suffer at the hands of a poor-performing school district, or worse yet, a corrupt system. Once special interests are embedded into local politics and into the systems those politicians control, it is usually very difficult to reverse that trend.
It’s a common trend that ACORN follows. The culture of the organization is to partner with the unions under master agreements, in many cases receiving compensation by way of a donation or direct payment from the organizations. Their services can include anything from providing organizing assistance, to finding disgruntled workers in non-union facilities to provide inside information to the labor unions, to sending protesters to facilities upon which their partners wish to place pressure or create negative PR. Assisting in the fight against charter schools is simply a natural fit for ACORN, as it benefits ACORN, monetarily and structurally, as much as it benefits its partners like the United Federation of Teachers and the SEIU.
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As a largely non-unionized profession, providers of child care –especially home based child care – have often been the initiating target for labor unions and ACORN to gain a stronghold in non-unionized areas. This is the proverbial “foot in the door” for the unions. The community-group/union/political collaborative has colluded in many states to secure an Executive Order from the states’ governors to ensure a unionized teachers workforce from the earliest of learning stages.
Clip from The Lottery: Harlem Success Academy 2 Principal Jim Manly sings a call-and-response song with HSA scholars
The Lottery: Eva Moskowitz (Founder, Harlem Success Academy) on how all kids can succeed academically if schools are designed around teaching and learning
The Lottery: Geoffrey Canada
From New York Post, Charter kids star:
For this lottery, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
The nerve-racking bid by parents to land their 5-year-old kid a coveted seat in a high-performing Harlem charter school is detailed in a documentary set to screen tomorrow at the Tribeca Film Festival.
“The Lottery” tracks the lives of four families — including a deaf single mom and a family where the father is in jail — in the lead-up to the largest charter-school lottery in the city last year at Harlem Success Academy.
“I felt very stressed out,” said Laurie Goodwine, who entered her son Gregory Jr. into more than 10 charter-school lotteries. “If he wasn’t able to get into a charter school, I felt like I was throwing him into a school that was failing.”
The film highlights several of the prominent aspects of the charter-school wars — including opposition from the teachers union to the typically non-unionized schools, and the heated battle for scarce building space between charters and traditional public schools.
But it’s the anxiety, praying and nail-biting of thousands of parents vying for hundreds of seats — like Ivory Coast immigrant Emil Yoanson and his son, Christian — that take center stage throughout the film.
“It’s very competitive and everybody, of course, wants their child to be in an excellent school,” said Shawna Roachford, another parent profiled in the flick.
“The frustrating part is that all schools should be excellent and we shouldn’t be fighting for a position in one particular school.“
In this next video, Geoffrey Canada (who spoke in the previous video), founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, talks about the hurdles to education that exist outside of the classroom.
Children Like Rats? – Geoffrey Canada Considers
From Sue Scheff: Failures of Public School – The Lottery Film:
The Lottery documentary will have one screening in Florida. This follows our public school system and gives you an education of what is wrong and where improvements need to be made. As they follow four separate students, it is an eye opening experiences.
On June 8th it is Public Education Day and a perfect day to screen this film.
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The Lottery uncovers a ferocious debate surrounding the education reform movement. Interviews with politicians and educators explain not only the crisis in public education, but also why it is fixable. A call to action to avert a catastrophe in the education of American children, The Lottery makes the case that any child can succeed.
It is time people take an interest in education today. Children are our future. Education is key to having a bright future. It is time to get involved!
From 2SecondsFaster.com, The Lottery Film:
It appears that the Teachers unions have been preventing proper education in the public schools. Well, this is something any moderate or conservative already knows. Unfortunately the powers that be in the democratic party like all the money they get from the teachers unions and have been actively protecting them for decades.
From Schools Building Communities, A Story of Hope:
After seeing television spots about the lottery, which has received high-profile visits from Gov. David Paterson and the head of NYC Schools Joel Klein, Sackler found herself deeply intrigued. “I was struck by the reality that most of those families would go home as losers,” she said, knowing that just one-in-seven applicants will be drawn. “I became interested in those families who were forced to chance for a quality education.”
The state performance tests tell the tale. Half of the typical public school students in New York are working at grade level. At the Harlem Success Academy nearly every student is at grade level, causing parents to brave a long, cold night — in the face of unlikely odds — for the best opportunity for their child.
“You just can’t ignore [those statistics],” said Sackler. “Those who oppose charter schools should at least be curious as to the reason for such a difference. To be for public schools doesn’t mean you have to be against charter schools … There is a lot of criticism leveled against every type of school, but it is kinda like noise. The focus should be on the school delivering what the kids need. That’s the conversation that needs to happen.”
Sackler — a first-time filmmaker — was quick to praise the four families who allowed her and her crew to shadow them through the process. “Having a camera crew in your New York City apartment while you are trying to put your child to bed is no easy thing,” she said.
She learned that the toughest aspect of being in charge was the scheduling — piecing together interviews, dealing with the families, organizing the crew. “One obstacle I was not able to overcome was reaching out to the union or tradition public school system administrations,” Sackler admitted. “I was not able to secure an interview after months and months of trying.”
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