Review: 'Waiting for Superman'

Sure to kick up dust while spreading light, it was voted favorite audience documentary at Sundance this year. Now it's this season's "must-see" film, if only to join the coming hot debate on public school reform.

Like its roads and bridges, America's public education system, once the world's finest, has developed cracks, crumbled and in some districts nearly collapsed since the 1970s.

It's Guggenheim's contention that the world has changed, but the public school system hasn't. And that generations of children have been not only left behind, but also been sentenced to "academic sinkholes" and "drop-out factories."

Then he goes on to prove it with alarming stats, rendered palatable by Awesome and Modest animation, examples of dead-and-don't-know-it bureaucracies and stifling union rules, including tenure after as little as two years in some states, that make it hard to dislodge lousy teachers and pay good ones more.

Here's the annual "Dance of the Lemons," which shuffles bad teachers around schools . And the infamous Rubber Room, where New York City teachers, accused of misconduct or incompetence, awaited hearings, sometimes for years, while drawing full pay.

Just as the filmmaker tapped into the surprising passion of Al Gore to teach "An Inconvenient Truth," the charismatic point man here is plain-talking education reformer Geoffrey Canada, founder, president and CEO of the Harlem's Children's Zone.

In 97 of New York City's toughest blocks, the Harlem charter schools and innovative programs are helping kids and families break the violence-poverty cycle. Canada's disappointment as a child upon learning that no superhero was coming to save him in the crime-ridden South Bronx inspired the title.

Long a champion of public education, Guggenheim admits up front that he sends his kids to private schools, then interweaves two different films. One chronicles what's behind the decline of U.S. public schools. The other follows five children in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., the Bronx and Harlem, as they reach out to charter schools.

And it's here that the filmmaker reels us in. Surveys and graphs are instructive, but Anthony, Bianca, Daisy, Emily and Francisco - all promising and eager and all but one poor, at-risk, Hispanic or black - are the real thing.

As these hopeful kids await results in the lottery required to fill the limited number of charter school slots, we, too, hold our breath. Charter schools might not be the grail, but high-performance ones are a way out for kids whose parents can't afford private schools.

The American Federation of Teachers union has come out swinging against the film and, yes, there's a lot missing, including sufficient nods to the nation's many exemplary public schools, inspiring teachers and innovative principals.

But it's a ringing call to pay attention. A republic needs learned citizens, not school drop-outs behind bars or walking the streets. Despite its sobering message, this is not a doomsday documentary.

Change won't be easy, and the sparks will fly, but "Waiting for `Superman' " points toward the light.

'Waiting for Superman'

Our grade: A-

Genre: Documentary

Running Time: 102 min

MPAA rating: PG