"The
Lottery" is a compelling film that focuses on the families that need
school choice the most. This film is so good that it is hard to believe
that it is Madeleine Sackler’s first feature length film or that it has
such high production values on a $350,000 budget. She offers a forceful
story line that shows just how hard parents will work to find
high-quality education options for their children.
Sackler’s documentary follows four Harlem families, who are waiting to
find out if their child will be chosen in the lottery to attend Harlem
Success Academy. Each family puts the child’s name into a lottery for
one of fewer than 500 spots at the school.
They are among more than
3,400 families competing for the chance to attend the high-rated
charter school. The four families face unique personal challenges from
a father who is incarcerated, to a mother who is hearing impaired, to a
child with a mother living in Africa. What the families share in common
is a desperate wish to put their kids in a high quality education
setting with a clear track record of high performance.
These kids
represent what all 3,400 lottery families want and thousands like them
in urban school settings across the nation; a chance to leverage high
quality education for a more promising future.
The film also chronicles the obstacles that Harlem Success Academy
faces from the education status quo. The charter wants to expand
operation in a public school building where the school is slated to be
closed for poor performance. The film puts in stark contrast how adult
interests for jobs and union rules impede kids from having more
high-quality choices for education. Harlem Success Academy needs the
space in order to offer a larger number of families enrolled in the
lottery access to the school. A host of characters from the union and
ACORN demonstrate against Harlem Success Academy’s expansion.
Madeleine Sackler reveals that most of the protestors did not even
live in the Harlem neighborhood and that the unions hired a
"rent-a-mob" to try and stop the charter school. The movie offers tense
and dramatic scenes between the New York city council and Harlem
Success Academy’s founder, Eva Moskowitz. At one remarkable point, a
city council member actually accuses Eva Moskowitz of lying about
living in Harlem.
As I watched the film in Los Angeles, where similar lotteries take
place for slots in high performing charter schools, there was not a dry
eye in the audience. Watching
the four children in the film brings home the point that these kids
start out as bright and enthusiastic and full of potential — just like
children starting school everywhere. The parents of these kids have
high hopes and high expectations. One realizes that if these children,
representative of urban five year olds everywhere, had more positive
educational opportunities and more choices perhaps the disadvantaged
label would not carry so much weight in explaining why urban children
have lower academic performance.
The Lottery website and film trailer is available here
with information about where and when you can see the film.
This film
is a must-see education film that lets the families speak for
themselves. It has all the drama of popular Hollywood education films,
except that it happens over and over again in charter schools across
the nation. Some kids win a golden ticket and get access to a high
performing school; while many more are denied access and have to
continue to fight for a high quality education.