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Editorial Reviews
Review
The ginger stepchild of President Obama's election platform, it seems that this country's broke-ass education system is finally stepping up for its media moment. On the heels of a recent 60 Minutes piece on Washington, D.C.'s SEED school and New York Times Magazine cover story focused on education reform comes The Lottery, a precise, impassioned look at the battle between zone and charter schools in Harlem. Director Madeleine Sackler interweaves the stories of four charter hopefuls and their families with an exploration of an issue whose politics have grown so complex that they squiggle even partisan lines. Sackler finds personal, persuasive points of entry for key factors in the debate: Statistics contrasting the annual amounts spent on a child's education and a prisoner's housing are followed by the account of a school lottery entrant's incarcerated father, who laments his lack of choice as much as the choices he made. An electrifying community meeting finds Harlem Success president Eva Moskowitz both vilified and heralded as "our Obama"; by local parents, as the unions depend on such poorly understood class and neighborhood tensions to maintain the status quo. Sackler reframes education reform as a moral issue, and it's impossible to look at the fallen faces of kids turned away from a school of all things and disagree. --The Village Voice
'What's funny," says Madeleine Sackler, "is that I'm not really a political person." Yet the petite 27-year-old is the force behind "The Lottery" an explosive new documentary about the battle over the future of public education opening nationwide this Tuesday. In the spring of 2008, Ms. Sackler, then a freelance film editor, caught a segment on the local news about New York's biggest lottery. It wasn't the Powerball. It was a chance for 475 lucky kids to get into one of the city's best charter schools (publicly funded schools that aren't subject to union rules). "I was blown away by the number of parents that were there," Ms. Sackler tells me over coffee on Manhattan's Upper West Side, recalling the thousands of people packed into the Harlem Armory that day for the drawing. "I wanted to know why so many parents were entering their kids into the lottery and what it would mean for them." And so Ms. Sackler did what any aspiring filmmaker would do: She grabbed her camera. Her initial aim was simple. "Going into the film I was excited just to tell a story,"; she says. "A vérité film, a really beautiful, independent story about four families that you wouldn't know otherwise" in the months leading up to the lottery for the Harlem Success Academy. But on the way to making the film she imagined, she "stumbled on this political mayhem really like a turf war about the future of public education." Or more accurately, she happened upon a raucous protest outside of a failing public school in which Harlem Success, already filled to capacity, had requested space. "We drove by that protest," Ms. Sackler recalls. "We were on our way to another interview and we jumped out of the van and started filming." There she discovered that the majority of those protesting the proliferation of charter schools were not even from the neighborhood. They'd come from the Bronx and Queens. "They all said 'We're not allowed to talk to you. We're just here to support the parents." But there were only two parents there, says Ms. Sackler, and both were members of Acorn. And so, "after not a lot of digging," she discovered that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) had paid Acorn, the controversial community organizing group, "half a million dollars for the year." (It cost less to make the film.) Finding out that the teachers union had hired a rent-a-mob to protest on its behalf was "the turn for us in the process." That story of self-interested adults trying to deny poor parents choice for their children provided an answer to Ms. Sackler's fundamental question: "If there are these high-performing schools that are closing the achievement gap, why aren't there more of them?" The reason is what Eva Moskowitz, founder of the Harlem Success Academy network and a key character in the film, calls the "union-political-educational complex." That's a fancy term for the web of unions and politicians who defend the status quo in order to protect their jobs. In the course of making "The Lottery," Ms. Sackler got to know the nature of that coalition intimately. "On day one, of course, I was very interested in all sides. I was in no way affiliated." From the beginning, she requested meetings with then UFT President Randi Weingarten, or anyone representing the union position. They refused. Harlem's public schools weren't much more accessible. "It was easier to film in a maximum security prison," something Ms. Sackler did to interview a parent "than it was to film in a traditional public school." Viewers still get a sense of the union's position, but it comes from the mouths of some unsavory New York pols. Take, for example, a scene from the film featuring a City Council hearing... --The Wall Street Journal
"The Lottery" is one of the more persuasive documentaries of recent months. It deals with the issue of charter schools in New York City's Harlem, about their great success and about the families that wait in hope of the annual lottery, by which children gain admittance. Three thousand apply for fewer than 500 openings. They're called "charter" schools because they operate according to a five-year charter with the city or state, and if they don't get results at the end of that period, they're closed. Though funded by government money, they operate outside the teachers unions. The school year and the class days are longer, and teachers who are underperforming are fired. According to the documentary, it's almost impossible to get rid of a bad teacher under the union system, and even when it happens, the process costs the city approximately $250,000. From a distance, this might seem like a dry subject for a documentary, but as filmmaker Madeleine Sackler makes clear, this is a matter of life and death to the parents. Aside from the charter schools, the public education system in Harlem is a disaster. Out of the 23 non-charter schools, 19 have fewer than half the students reading at grade level. Thus the lottery could very well determine the entire course of a child's life - even its length. The schools under the regular system are factories of failure and incubators of crime. So you'd think that the successful model established by Eva Moskowitz, a mother of three who founded the first charter schools in Harlem, should be the educational road map for the city of New York. But no. The documentary shows the stranglehold that the teachers union has on politicians, particularly Democratic politicians. The arrogance and ignorance of some of these politicians is galling, particularly in the scene in which Moskovitz testified before an education panel. Fortunately, some Democratic politicians, such as Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, are bucking the trend. By the time the lottery takes place, viewers understand all that's riding on it. You look at all these beautiful kids, with all the potential in the world, and every expectation for a great life, and you know that at most one-sixth of them will come out of the room with a fighting chance. That shouldn't be. --The San Francisco Chronicle
'What's funny," says Madeleine Sackler, "is that I'm not really a political person." Yet the petite 27-year-old is the force behind "The Lottery" an explosive new documentary about the battle over the future of public education opening nationwide this Tuesday. In the spring of 2008, Ms. Sackler, then a freelance film editor, caught a segment on the local news about New York's biggest lottery. It wasn't the Powerball. It was a chance for 475 lucky kids to get into one of the city's best charter schools (publicly funded schools that aren't subject to union rules). "I was blown away by the number of parents that were there," Ms. Sackler tells me over coffee on Manhattan's Upper West Side, recalling the thousands of people packed into the Harlem Armory that day for the drawing. "I wanted to know why so many parents were entering their kids into the lottery and what it would mean for them." And so Ms. Sackler did what any aspiring filmmaker would do: She grabbed her camera. Her initial aim was simple. "Going into the film I was excited just to tell a story,"; she says. "A vérité film, a really beautiful, independent story about four families that you wouldn't know otherwise" in the months leading up to the lottery for the Harlem Success Academy. But on the way to making the film she imagined, she "stumbled on this political mayhem really like a turf war about the future of public education." Or more accurately, she happened upon a raucous protest outside of a failing public school in which Harlem Success, already filled to capacity, had requested space. "We drove by that protest," Ms. Sackler recalls. "We were on our way to another interview and we jumped out of the van and started filming." There she discovered that the majority of those protesting the proliferation of charter schools were not even from the neighborhood. They'd come from the Bronx and Queens. "They all said 'We're not allowed to talk to you. We're just here to support the parents." But there were only two parents there, says Ms. Sackler, and both were members of Acorn. And so, "after not a lot of digging," she discovered that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) had paid Acorn, the controversial community organizing group, "half a million dollars for the year." (It cost less to make the film.) Finding out that the teachers union had hired a rent-a-mob to protest on its behalf was "the turn for us in the process." That story of self-interested adults trying to deny poor parents choice for their children provided an answer to Ms. Sackler's fundamental question: "If there are these high-performing schools that are closing the achievement gap, why aren't there more of them?" The reason is what Eva Moskowitz, founder of the Harlem Success Academy network and a key character in the film, calls the "union-political-educational complex." That's a fancy term for the web of unions and politicians who defend the status quo in order to protect their jobs. In the course of making "The Lottery," Ms. Sackler got to know the nature of that coalition intimately. "On day one, of course, I was very interested in all sides. I was in no way affiliated." From the beginning, she requested meetings with then UFT President Randi Weingarten, or anyone representing the union position. They refused. Harlem's public schools weren't much more accessible. "It was easier to film in a maximum security prison," something Ms. Sackler did to interview a parent "than it was to film in a traditional public school." Viewers still get a sense of the union's position, but it comes from the mouths of some unsavory New York pols. Take, for example, a scene from the film featuring a City Council hearing... --The Wall Street Journal
"The Lottery" is one of the more persuasive documentaries of recent months. It deals with the issue of charter schools in New York City's Harlem, about their great success and about the families that wait in hope of the annual lottery, by which children gain admittance. Three thousand apply for fewer than 500 openings. They're called "charter" schools because they operate according to a five-year charter with the city or state, and if they don't get results at the end of that period, they're closed. Though funded by government money, they operate outside the teachers unions. The school year and the class days are longer, and teachers who are underperforming are fired. According to the documentary, it's almost impossible to get rid of a bad teacher under the union system, and even when it happens, the process costs the city approximately $250,000. From a distance, this might seem like a dry subject for a documentary, but as filmmaker Madeleine Sackler makes clear, this is a matter of life and death to the parents. Aside from the charter schools, the public education system in Harlem is a disaster. Out of the 23 non-charter schools, 19 have fewer than half the students reading at grade level. Thus the lottery could very well determine the entire course of a child's life - even its length. The schools under the regular system are factories of failure and incubators of crime. So you'd think that the successful model established by Eva Moskowitz, a mother of three who founded the first charter schools in Harlem, should be the educational road map for the city of New York. But no. The documentary shows the stranglehold that the teachers union has on politicians, particularly Democratic politicians. The arrogance and ignorance of some of these politicians is galling, particularly in the scene in which Moskovitz testified before an education panel. Fortunately, some Democratic politicians, such as Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, are bucking the trend. By the time the lottery takes place, viewers understand all that's riding on it. You look at all these beautiful kids, with all the potential in the world, and every expectation for a great life, and you know that at most one-sixth of them will come out of the room with a fighting chance. That shouldn't be. --The San Francisco Chronicle
Product Description
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. Directed by Madeleine Sackler and shot by award-winning cinematographer Wolfgang Held, 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.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By J. Gomez
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is a good concept that was developed very well. It describes the perils American families in the NY/NJ area have to go through while trying to ensure a good future for their kids. The film shows individuals on both sides of the conflict (Charter schools and Union/Public schools). It is hard to admit that the criteria for deciding our kids' future is nothing else than the Zip code where we live and some arbitrary boundary lines that were drawn to assign schools to a residential area. It was eye-opening for me, and it was a snapshot of the sad reality we are facing today. Movies/documentaries like this add a lot of value to our society. They help raise awareness. They help us understand the issues at hand. In addition, this film also provided a potential solution to the problem. I do not think the solution is to convert all of our schools to Charter Schools. There are probably several Charters failing across America. I think the solution is to introduce the notion of accountability, quality, and work ethics into our educational system. I am a firm proponent that teachers should have bigger incentives to perform. The good teachers make as big of an impact on our kids' lives as the parents themselves. However, when underperforming they should also face the reality of the workforce and look elsewhere for employment if they are not fulfilling their role and responsibility. Failing teachers are not only failing as individuals; they are failing our kids and the future of this country.
I applaude the makers of this film for taking on such a controversial topic. It is good to have an educated discussion about these issues. I recommend it to every parent that has kids in school age. Well done!
I applaude the makers of this film for taking on such a controversial topic. It is good to have an educated discussion about these issues. I recommend it to every parent that has kids in school age. Well done!
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The Lottery is a fine documentary that is certainly quite timely; it's no secret that the public school system in New York City and throughout many parts of the United States fails to adequately prepare our children for a bright future in which any career is possible. The film moves along quite well so that I never felt bored; indeed, the footage of children and their families waiting to be picked for a charter school in Harlem moved me considerably and it's a crime that not all of them and their peers could choose a charter school over a regular public school (referred to as a zone school which based on your address)--there's simply not enough room in the charter schools to educate all of the students who want to go there!
The film dispels the myth that underprivileged children will, almost by default, wind up doing poorly--we see children from troubled backgrounds with poverty, incarcerated parents and more making a success of themselves in the classroom. They can still have bright futures! These charter school children are reading at their expected grade level as opposed to children in the regular New York public school system in which children just aren't learning much--sometimes they read at a fourth grade level when they're in eighth grade!
It's quite something just to watch the footage of four children in particular as we get to know them and their immediate relatives; the parents want so badly for their children to get a superb education and avoid the regular public school system. We also see the effect the teacher's union has on the ability of the charter school system to grow--it fights the growth of charter schools because, as we see in this film, charter schools threaten public school union jobs--jobs with so much union protection that it is almost impossible to fire an incompetent teacher.
The DVD comes with four featurettes. They are brief but very well done. They show the poor ranking of United States schools when compared to schools in foreign countries; and there is an emphasis on taking responsibility for getting a high quality education instead of simply sitting back and blaming others or "the system."
Overall, I give The Lottery very high marks for being frank and poignant at once. Anyone interested in the issues surrounding public education in our country would do well to add this to their collection.
The film dispels the myth that underprivileged children will, almost by default, wind up doing poorly--we see children from troubled backgrounds with poverty, incarcerated parents and more making a success of themselves in the classroom. They can still have bright futures! These charter school children are reading at their expected grade level as opposed to children in the regular New York public school system in which children just aren't learning much--sometimes they read at a fourth grade level when they're in eighth grade!
It's quite something just to watch the footage of four children in particular as we get to know them and their immediate relatives; the parents want so badly for their children to get a superb education and avoid the regular public school system. We also see the effect the teacher's union has on the ability of the charter school system to grow--it fights the growth of charter schools because, as we see in this film, charter schools threaten public school union jobs--jobs with so much union protection that it is almost impossible to fire an incompetent teacher.
The DVD comes with four featurettes. They are brief but very well done. They show the poor ranking of United States schools when compared to schools in foreign countries; and there is an emphasis on taking responsibility for getting a high quality education instead of simply sitting back and blaming others or "the system."
Overall, I give The Lottery very high marks for being frank and poignant at once. Anyone interested in the issues surrounding public education in our country would do well to add this to their collection.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By bahamas811
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Lottery is an outstanding documentary movie. I was fascinated to watch the stories of a handful of eager young children whose parents want a better education and future for their children. We have an educational crisis in this country. I encourage all people of voting age to watch this movie to learn of the enormous effort required to overcome the status quo in bringing about an improvement in educational outcomes. Many of the people in the educational establishment who claim to want to help are actually shown to be far more interested in preserving the status quo than in helping students. Education reform and freedom of choice in education are clearly becoming the civil rights issues of our time. It should impact the way you vote!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Touch of Reality
This dvd is a window of what children must go through in order to find a level playing field in education when born into a life on the other side of the tracks. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Gratefulinflorida
5.0 out of 5 stars
Made me cry
Many of the other reviews have already outlined the content of the movie, so I won't do so in my review. I will say though that this documentary certainly had my attention. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jessica Weleski
4.0 out of 5 stars
Informative!
For those of us unfamiliar to the debate and purpose of Charter Schools-this video clarifies that. Additionally, viewers get the understanding that education reform is taking a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Teach2Me
4.0 out of 5 stars
Charter School President
As I worked with a team to develop a Charter School I discovered this gem. If it doesn't bring tears to your eyes you aren't human.
Published 5 months ago by William Crawford
5.0 out of 5 stars
The lotttery winners!
Good documentary of a complex subject! Seckler is a competent documentarian who brings clarity to the challenges of NYC schools.
Published 7 months ago by Rjsulllivan
3.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading
The Lottery is extremely misleading because it casts all charter schools in a positive light. The movie fails to mention that most charter schools are ran by individuals with no... Read more
Published 11 months ago by William G. Adams
2.0 out of 5 stars
Generalizations and the Demonization of Public Schools
There has been a bevy of "documentary" films that have been done on schooling in America. Nearly every one of these films has cast public schooling in a negative light and "The... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Stephen J. Dent
5.0 out of 5 stars
Touching, Dynamic, Galvanizing Effect
First shout out to the amazing Amazon Prime membership for the convenience of instant films!
I absolutely loved this movie. Read more
I absolutely loved this movie. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Kelsey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mind-Blowing!
If you don't think education is problematic, please watch this show. It will motivate you to call for drastic changes.
Published 22 months ago by Claytongene
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good documentary on problems with public schools.
The Lottery is a 2010 education documentary about how four families try to get their children into the premier charter school in Harlem, the Harlem Success Academy. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Henry Cate III
