Waiting for Superman

When I did my class on "Superman Returns" I talked about how Superman was the perfect kind of savior for our time. He was always there to protect us and right all of society's wrongs, and we didn't owe him anything.

Davis Guggenheim picks up on that theme as well with his exceptional new documentary "Waiting for Superman." The film isn't about superheroes, but rather the real heroes of our society, the men and women that have dedicated their lives to trying to make a difference in the lives of students. And it's certainly an uphill battle. The film also takes a hard look at the education system, exhorting the public to get into the game, so to speak, because we can't sit around and wait for a hero to save us.

Education is a passionate issue for me. I spent the better part of my full-time career as a journalist covering the education system and I was often inspired and touched by the dedication and heart that many of our local educators brought to the classroom. I've also come to see that our system is flawed. "Waiting for Superman" is an exploration of that idea, taking a hard look at the system and the fact that there are no easy answers for the problems that face our children.

Yet there are some that oppose this film because they say it advocates for charter schools. First off, I would say this film doesn't advocate any position other than we need to do whatever is possible to offer a quality education to students. Second, I would say there is some misinformation about charter schools.

I ran into this misinformation during the local election too. Charter schools are schools that are funded with public education dollars that are not subject to the conventional public school guidelines (i.e. teachers unions, teacher tenure, and flawed instructional goals). There also seems to be some kind of opinion that charter schools seek to recruit the best students just to lower the scores of public schools. That's also incorrect. Charter schools, when they have more applicants than spaces, hold lotteries to fill their slots.

For example, there is a charter school proposal in Paso Robles. Even the people who are working on getting the charter school up and running do not have guaranteed slots for their own students.

But the reason charter schools have become so popular is because they work. The reason they receive so much criticism from the establishment is because they threaten a system that gives power to unions. All of those things are explored in "Waiting for Superman," and it is up to each of us to decide how we feel and exercise that opinion at the ballot box.

We live in a time when, if we don't start to make the hard decisions to change the path we're on, we will continue to lose generations of students. We are endangering not only their futures, but the future of our country.

Today is election day. Among those items on the ballot are people running for office that will directly impact the future of our education system. If you care about the future of our country and our education system, then it is incumbent upon you to fulfill your responsibility at the ballot box. In a time when the system is a big part of the problem, it is time to find new voices who aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and get the job done.