Bad Education: A Black Eye for My Alma Mater

When I was 8 and my sister Jo was 11, my parents moved the family from Brooklyn to Roslyn, a town in Nassau County, Long Island.  They moved us there because Roslyn had an excellent school system, especially Roslyn High School.  They were both teachers, so our education was their top priority.  My sister graduated in 1962 (as did Michael Crichton), and I am from the class of '65.  Many of my classmates from that high school are as smart as anyone I ever met in college, medical school, or residency.  I don't recall whether they had any national rankings for high schools back then.  In any case, neither myself nor my sister went to an Ivy League college and we didn't deserve to, either – both of us being rather uninspired to study. Fast forward to 2004 and Roslyn High is the #4 high school in the USA (Go Bulldogs!)  Roslyn's rise to the top was led by their charismatic and handsome Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman).  Frank's right-hand person was Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), the Business Manager.  Dr. Tassone wants Roslyn to be #1, so he has gotten approval from the school board to build a Skywalk connecting one end of the school to the other.  The estimated cost of this grandiose project is a paltry $8,000,000!  Roslyn High's "rise" to national prominence has significant advantages to the community.  Ivy League schools are more inclined to accept the Roslyn High students, which results in significantly higher home prices. A student, Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan), writing for the school paper, "The Hilltop Beacon," is assigned to write a puff-piece about the Skywalk.  She comes in to ask Dr. Tassone a few questions about it, and Frank, wanting to encourage her, tells her that she could turn this article into a real story if she tries.  I have no doubt Frank came to regret ever uttering those words.  Rachel finds some serious irregularities, but the head of the school board, Bob Spicer (Ray Romano), is reluctant to notify the police since a scandal will knock Roslyn High way down in the rankings with disastrous consequences for Ivy League admissions and Roslyn home real estate prices.  Rachel continues to dig further into why the Skywalk costs so much.  Eventually, she publishes the story about how Frank and Pam embezzled millions of dollars in the high school paper. This is an amazing true story about what has been deemed the greatest high school scandal ever in the Unites States!  It also sheds some light on the recent scandals at USC and UCLA concerning college admissions.  The acting by Jackman and Janney is top-notch too.  As an "unbiased" reviewer, this HBO movie a MUST-SEE!