‘Waiting for Superman’: The Sad State of Our Schools

Be prepared for director Guggenheim’s stinging indictment of the U.S. educational system.

American educator and author Geoffrey Canada (R), in "Waiting for 'Superman.'"Paramount Pictures

NR | 1h 42m | Documentary, Education | 2010

At the beginning of “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” (“Superman”) co-writer, director, and narrator Davis Guggenheim drives by three Los Angeles public schools and points out that while he could enroll his own children in any one of them, he and his actress wife, Elisabeth Shue, will instead choose a private school.

In the space of 30 seconds, and probably without intending to do so, Mr. Guggenheim overstates the obvious. If you’re well-to-do, you don’t have to send your kids to public school and risk ruining their future. For 100 or so minutes, Mr. Guggenheim lays out statistics that most people with a working brain already know: The nation’s public schools are failing, and if we don’t do something about it soon, the United States as a whole is in big trouble.

Director Davis Guggenheim, in "Waiting for 'Superman.'"  Paramount Pictures

Because of his soothing, honey-rich high baritone and steady, measured delivery of material, Mr. Guggenheim never comes across as the typical sky-is-falling documentarian (read: Michael Moore). This cool, detached approach allows the audience to fully soak in the information without being distracted by a grandstanding narcissist.

Mr. Guggenheim lets the facts speak for themselves and, as you might guess, they are indeed scary. In the context of a feature film, however, they are also a tad stiff and occasionally yawn-inducing. There are a few instances where Mr. Guggenheim relies more on statistics and less on a consistent presentation that would keep the audience’s undivided attention. 

When not piling on the numbers, Mr. Guggenheim devotes his attention to five children, their families, and two high-profile school administrators, who all deliver the punch and drama that the rest of “Superman” lacks. The children, all minorities, are trying desperately to get into charter schools. These private, as well as publicly funded, enterprises employ nonunion teachers and, for the most part, churn out brilliant students like clockwork.

O Canada

The animated and always engaging Geoffrey Canada is a trailblazer in the charter school movement. And after setting up shop in one of the most rundown communities in the nation (Harlem), he proved that the system itself isn’t the problem.

American educator and author Geoffrey Canada (R) speaking to students, in "Waiting for 'Superman.'" Paramount Pictures

The nation’s two teachers’ unions are holding the system hostage and show no signs of loosening their arcane, vise-grip stranglehold. They are effectively doing to schools what the United Auto Workers union did to the nation’s car industry in 1970. It was then that 400,000 General Motors employees went on strike for 67 days. This work stoppage, in tandem with a perceived decline in the quality of American-made cars, opened the door for European and Asian companies to permanently claim a large chunk of the market share.

Backed with a virtual unlimited supply of cash, these unions have more political clout than any other organization in the country, and they fund the coffers of national and local Democrat and Republican lawmakers, who see to it that the status quo remains undisturbed. With few exceptions, once teachers attain tenure after two years of employment, it is practically impossible to fire them, no matter how incompetent, unethical, or in some cases, unlawful, they might be.

Rhee to the Rescue

In Washington, Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the worst public school system in the country at the time of filming, dared to take on the unions. She closed down 20 schools and dismissed hundreds of underperforming teachers and principals. Citizens and the unions cried bloody murder, but Ms. Rhee held her ground. As a result, student test scores and graduation rates skyrocketed. Go figure.

Educator Michelle Rhee, in "Waiting for 'Superman.'" Paramount Pictures

In the film’s final sequence, Mr. Guggenheim includes close-ups of those five children and their families as lottery numbers for admission to various charter schools are announced. It is at once uplifting and heartbreaking. A handful of children, purely by the luck of a random draw, are handed an avenue to a greater future while many others are left in the dust. This shouldn’t be the way America chooses to educate its children.

When I first saw “Superman” in 2010, I thought it merely average. Mr. Guggenheim, also the director of the Al Gore propaganda-travesty “An Inconvenient Truth,” asked all the right questions yet provided little in the way of answers. In retrospect, providing answers was not Mr. Guggenheim’s job: Merely posing the questions was enough. Prodding the sleeping beast that is the American teachers’ unions is sufficient, and it works like gangbusters.

Left Blowback

Within weeks of the movie’s 2010 release, unfounded and exaggerated hit pieces from the militant left media targeting Ms. Rhee and Mr. Canada littered the internet. The lumbering teachers’ unions reacted as expected, yet they could not offer any substantial arguments in their defense.

In the years since “Superman,” the situation has only gotten worse. A 2023 report indicated that 13 of Baltimore’s 32 public schools had not one student proficient in math.

The people we trust with our children’s education have collectively dropped the ball. They have no intention of doing anything different. Unionized teachers work within a system where merit and achievement are marginalized, and the loss of employment because of poor performance is unlikely, if not impossible.

Is this the system under which you want your children’s future to be shaped?

Theatrical poster for "Waiting for Superman." Paramount Pictures

The movie is available on home video and to stream on Vudu, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+.

‘Waiting for Superman’ Documentary Director: Davis Guggenheim Running Time: 1 hour, 42 minutes Release Date: Sept. 24, 2010 Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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