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The education system mode in America is working aptly, says Bob Bowdon, however simply for a few — and those few surely aren’t the students. In his documentary “The Cartel,” New Jersey television news reporter Bowdon shines a light on the degeneracy and avarice that has resulted in the disappearance of so much taxpayer money in that state. When $400,000 is exhausted per classroom, but reading proficiency is just 39% (and math at 40%), the crisis is apparent, which doesn’t denote it’s not controversial.

The two sides of this conflict meet head-on in interviews throughout Bowdon’s film: there are the teachers union and school board members who have managed to set aside 90 cents of every taxpayer buck into everything but teachers’ salaries — while a variety of school administrators get paid upwards of $100,000. On the other slope are the supporters of a charter education system, private schools in which parents can use tax vouchers to pay tuition and shake off the public nightmare. In those disordered public schools, Bowdon points out, it’s just about unimaginable to fire a teacher — so even a mediocre one has a career for life.

“‘The Cartel’ examines lots of unique aspects of public teaching, tenure, funding, patronage drops, subversion –meaning larceny — vouchers and charter schools,” says Bowdon. “The expression education documentary could sound to some like ho-hum squared, but in fact the picture itself betrays an ardent passion for the plight of particularly inner-city children.”

“The Cartel” started fashioning the round of the festivals in summer 2009, and made its theatrical debut pretty much a year later, in spring 2010. The picture has started a lot of discussion, which ought no doubt go on with the more-recent release of “An Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim’s own education expose, “Waiting for Superman.” Bowdon says the documentaries can be seen as companion pieces: his focusing on public policy and Guggenheim’s taking the human-interest slant. “My picture is the left-brained edition, more analytical,” Bowdon says, “‘Waiting for Superman’ is more the right-brained treatment.”

It is positively analytical, couching its arguments in an appraisal of how the money is being spent, or misspent. He follows the money to extract conclusions around how dirty the Jersey school system is, but his film features moments of great emotion and grief. The weeping face of a young girl who learns she was not selected for a place at a charter school makes its own deep argument for the unsatisfying failure of a state’s education system.

And although it may be easy to admit the presence of corruption in a state so associated with organized crime, the uncomfortable fact of the subject is that this is a greatly familiar situation. A viewer anyplace in the country will discern similar failings in their own school system, and may share Bowdon’s frustration and readiness for a resolution. Bowdon puts his faith in the charter schools, where the taxpayer has influence over the kind and quality of instruction. But he also makes it obvious that those in power are going to be unwilling to give it up without a fight.

The Cartel Movie, a documentary by Bob Bowdon.

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