The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge is urging members interested in school choice to attend a documentary at Pellissippi State Community College in Hardin Valley on Thursday.
The documentary is titled “Backpack Full of Cash.” It’s narrated by Matt Damon, and it’s described in an event flyer as a film “exploring the real cost of privatizing America’s public schools.”
In the United States, $600 billion per year is spent to educate children, a fact “near and dear” to proponents of privatizing, according to information provided by Kay Moss.
Filmed during the 2013-2014 school year in Nashville, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and other cities, the feature-length documentary narrated by Damon concentrates on how privatization is devastating public school funding, the information said.
Director Sarah Mondale, a former public school teacher now associated with Stone Lantern Films, and documentary producer Vera Aronow from Turnstone Productions have resourced a case for revitalizing our public schools, the information said.
“They cameo Union City, New Jersey, Public Schools as a highly successful system where poor students are getting a quality education without vouchers or charters,” the information said. “They contrast this system with several other public education systems which are starved of resources. They can do little more than hang in the balance, a precarious position for one of the last democratic institutions in this country. And they deliver a cautionary narrative of how funding cuts and privatization have devastating effects on the children who must rely on those public schools.”
The Knoxville/Knox County League of Women Voters has arranged three showings of “Backpack Full of Cash.” The first is at Pellissippi State Community College, Goins Building Auditorium, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, November 9. Oak Ridgers are urged to attend at this convenient location, the League of Women Voters said.
The other two showings will be at West High School on Tuesday, November 14, and at Gresham Middle School on Thursday, November 16.
It’s free to the public, and there will be a question-and-answer session immediately after the film. See the flyer above for more information about the other two locations and additional sponsors.
For more information and updates, visit https://www.facebook.com/BackpackKnoxville.
This information from League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge.
