Film
Backpack Full of Cash
A documentary about the privatization of American public education and its human costs. Narrated by Matt Damon, it follows the money flowing out of schools through voucher programs, charter schools, and for-profit alternatives, watching how policy decisions remake communities. Essential viewing for anyone with children, teaching, or simply invested in how America educates its young.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you want a clear-eyed, argument-driven documentary about who profits when public money leaves the classroom, and you don't mind it leaning hard into its point of view.
Skip it if you came for balanced debate or a tidy survey of education policy, since this is openly a polemic built to make one case, not a survey of the debate.
What it asks of you: Ninety-six minutes at a brisk, punchy clip, so you're mostly taking in arguments and evidence rather than long quiet scenes.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Waiting for "Superman"2010
Explores education reform through intimate portraits of families chasing charter school spots. Unflinching about systemic failures while centering the desperation of parents trying to find their kids a way out.
But Some find its framing of teachers as part of the problem reductive; the film's solutions remain contested among education experts.
Fyre2019
A masterclass in how charisma and marketing can obscure catastrophic incompetence. The parallels to education reform—promises that sound perfect but depend on extraction—are harder to ignore on a second watch.
But It's ostensibly about a music festival, not schools. The connection asks something of the viewer.
13th2016
Ava DuVernay traces how criminal justice and education systems emerged from the same American machinery. Necessary context for understanding how opportunity gets rationed along racial lines.
But Dense and demanding. The breadth of scope means some threads don't get the depth they deserve.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Backpack Full of Cash
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Shrink Next Door2021
Both track how charm and insider access become tools for transferring public resources to private benefit. The seduction of the system from inside.
A limited series about a charismatic man who extracts value from those who trust him. Not about education, but the machinery of persuasion and exploitation—how someone convinces smart people to subsidize his worldview—is identical.
But It's a character study of a specific relationship, not a systems critique. If you need explicit education policy discussion, this will frustrate you.
More like this (4)
The Brand New Testament2015
Examines standardized testing's grip on education through policy and human story. Shows what gets lost when you build a system around measurement instead of learning.
But Can feel repetitive if you're already familiar with the testing-industrial complex critique.
Spotlight2015
About institutions protecting themselves at the expense of the vulnerable. The parallel to how schools shield privatization schemes from scrutiny is structural, not accidental.
But It's about the Boston Globe investigating abuse in the Church. You have to do some of the thinking about education yourself.
Freakonomics2010
Both ask the question: what happens to schools when you treat them as markets? One is outraged. One is curious. Both are right.
Economic analysis of how incentives shape behavior, including in schools. If Backpack Full of Cash makes you angry, this makes you think about *why* smart people keep implementing bad systems.
But Leans heavily on data and theory. No characters to root for or against. Some find it bloodless.
Lean on Pete2018
Privatization and disinvestment don't just move money. They abandon children. This film is what that abandonment looks like from inside someone's life.
A fictionalized story about a young person moving through America with no stable institution to catch them. Not a documentary, not about schools—but it shows what childhood looks like when the safety net has gaps.
But It's a narrative film, quiet and sometimes slow. No talking heads, no data. Requires you to sit with mood and implication rather than argument.
People
Cast
Matt DamonNarrator
Directing
- Sarah MondaleDirector
Writing
- Sarah MondaleWriter
- Vera AronowWriter
Production
- Sarah B. PattonExecutive Producer
- Sarah MondaleProducer
- Vera AronowProducer