In Waiting for Superman, the film talked about the benefits of charter schools and how they represent the future of education for America. It apparently raised grades and the system bypasses the hassle of the teachers union, thus allowing for unhindered education thanks to competent teachers. However, this film is extremely biased and therefore not entirely reliable. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The documentary explains that there are dropout factories in public schools, where most students never graduate. Dropouts make the surrounding area a “bad” place and this leads to a bad learning environment for future generations. This repeats itself and becomes a vicious circle, and even nearby places become potential abandonment factories. Even the teachers of the teachers who leave don't do their job. For example, in one school in the film, the teacher refused to teach and instead sat there reading the newspaper. He was fired, but a year later the school was forced to rehire him. This is because teachers are tenured, and this means that if the teacher has taught for at least 3 years, he is guaranteed that position forever, unless he does something extremely illegal. So, in factories that abandon teachers, teachers don't do their best, and some don't even teach. Even in decent public schools, students' scores on standardized tests fall short. Overall in America, only about 35% of students score proficient in math and English. Surprisingly, our country's capital, Washington DC, has one of the worst education districts in America. Charter schools can fire and hire anyone at will, which ensures that incompetent teachers are purged from the system. They also have power over what to teach and how long a school day lasts. Additionally, according to the film, several charter schools have been established in areas of abandonment factories, dramatically reducing dropout rates. Because many people try to enroll in these charter schools, the schools hold a lottery in which a few hundred people sign up and only several dozen students are admitted. In the film we see 4 people trying to get into these schools. schools through a lottery. What's really depressing is that if they don't enter the lottery, they have to go to an abandonment factory in the area. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay What I found interesting is how biased the film is. This film focuses exclusively on highly successful charter schools and infamously failing public schools. The rate of teacher burnout was never even discussed. 25% of teachers gave up teaching to the best of their ability/dropped out of school because it was too challenging to help students get better grades. It also focuses too much on how charter schools help students in abandonment factory areas, but in other places does it really help that much? In our school debate, I learned that in reality, charter schools, on average, don't actually help grades go higher. In some places, charter schools are actually inferior to public schools. This film is a reliable source for the charter school movement, but it ignores the whole other side: how to reform the public education system.