(One father, after I’d caught his son plagiarizing, shrugged off the charges, pointing out that “the president doesn’t write his own speeches.” He could have been a bit character in the movie.) And it’s a morality tale about the fine and blurry lines between ambition and greed; in a lesser performance, Tassone, a former English teacher turned entitled grifter, could have seemed merely pathetic or simply evil, but Jackman makes him a complex antihero with a Shakespearean tragic flaw. HBO Bad Education tells the savage tale of former Roslyn school principal Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman), a beloved educator who cheated a tony town of Long Island to the tune of $ 11.2 million over a dozen years. Kick off each morning with coffee and the Daily Brief (BYO coffee). But what does it mean to be a “good” school, or a “good” educator, or a “good” student? The tone of venality was set by the community, in the form of hunger for the higher property values and college pedigrees conferred by its prestigious schools. By providing your email, you agree to the Quartz Privacy Policy. It’s also a delicious true-crime story about a brazen con man who breaches trust, like a smaller-time Bernie Madoff. Still, if, as you watch—and you should, as the film is engrossing and thought-provoking—you find yourself questioning whether these people were really anything like this in real life, I can tell you the answer is yes, yes, they were. The Bachelor Nation news was almost all positive last week, with a new Bach baby, another one on the way, a fan-favor, A Guide To The Mysterious Characters Of HBO’s, There’s A Lot Of History Behind The Cast Of The. Bad Education is based on a New York magazine story by reporter Robert … While many details and players from the case have been fictionalized for the screen, I can attest that it all rings true. Roslyn’s parents aren’t glamorous—Bad Education casts them in a harsh light with strong Long Island accents, overprocessed hair, and nouveau-riche taste—nor do they sink to tactics like padding their children’s resumes with fake extracurriculars or cheating on the SAT’s on their behalf. Our emails are made to shine in your inbox, with something fresh every morning, afternoon, and weekend. The Familiar Faces Of The Ryan Murphy Universe. But soon I started feeling that something was off. Ultimately, a struggle over what I perceived as institutionalized grade inflation is what finally pushed me to take another job. It wasn’t long before I learned my discomfort was justified. Even the blocky, harshly lit office and school buildings look just how they do in my memory. Parents routinely pressured teachers to let students retake tests, do extra credit, and revise essays. And now, way more people will be maddened — and entertained — by the story, while Roslyn residents will be able to look back on the story that touched them personally 15 years later. But it’s not hard to see how you get from here to there. Hugh Jackman plays the Roslyn district superintendent on Long … But the characters in Bad Education are so expertly drawn, the thorny issues so well teased out, and the path to discovery so rewarding, that a personal connection is hardly needed to appreciate it. In Makowsky’s telling, the Roslyn scandal wasn’t a simple case of opportunism, greed, or even, as suggested in the movie, sociopathy. The movie evokes another case in the headlines involving ethically compromised parents: the college admissions scandal that led to criminal charges for celebrities Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. Correction: This post was updated to reflect the fact that while Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were both indicted in the college admissions scandal, Loughlin’s case is still pending. Though I interacted only a few times with Tassone himself, and never, to my memory, with Gluckin, their movie versions felt eerily spot on. Quartz is owned by Uzabase, the business intelligence and media company. If you can't get enough true crime, then HBO has a new movie for you. Enjoy! Premiering on April 25, Roslyn was known for its schools. It premieres on HBO on April 25. That their malfeasance is exposed by an ambitious student is played for light irony—in an early scene, Tassone encourages her to ask hard questions and do real reporting. Those include the useless capital project that ultimately leads Rachel, the budding student journalist, to the thieving Tassone and Gluckin. For a schools superintendent who prioritizes shallow initiatives designed to keep parents happy when he isn’t off spending the money he got raiding the school budget, it ends up being quite an effective lesson. Watching him drive up to the school in his Mercedes in the movie took me right back to the same scene 20 years ago. One minor character, a pushy mother who blindly believes her underachieving son is gifted and deserves to have rules bent for him to succeed, reminds me of people I met in real-life Roslyn, where I played out variations on this scene over and over. offici, “It’s so weird, I get a lot of compliments from people who are like, ’I’m just not used to seeing you do stand-up. That’s because the school was Roslyn High School on Long Island. “Bad Education” tells the true story of a Long Island superintendent, Frank Tassone (played by Hugh Jackman), who embezzled $2.2 million of taxpayer money from the school district. Some even looked the other way when their children cheated. The context for the crimes is a wealthy, self-impressed school board whose members are initially okay with hushing up grand larceny to protect their own interests. If that name sounds familiar at all, it’s probably not because of its national ranking, but because, just a couple of years after my departure, a scandal started coming to light, ultimately revealing that over the course of a decade, administrators stole and misdirected over $11 million from the district. I like you acting better,’”, The bright orange crickets Sam (Jude Law) keeps spotting on the mysterious island were the most important clue that what you see can’t always be believed, Need an antidote to the regular news? These are the core obsessions that drive our newsroom—defining topics of seismic importance to the global economy. For me, it adds an extra layer, but there are plenty of depths to plumb without it. In 1999, I began my teaching career at a high school in a well-off district where most of the students drove cars much nicer than mine. Roslyn High School was ranked the sixth best high school in America in 2004, according to the, But, things took at turn in 2002 when Tassone's assistant superintendent for business, Pam Gluckin, was caught for using $250,000 worth of school district money for personal purchases and her mortgage. Now that story, the biggest school embezzlement case in US history, is retold in the new movie Bad Education, starring Hugh Jackman as Frank Tassone, the corrupt superintendent, and Allison Janney as his partner in crime and assistant superintendent, Pam Gluckin. The film—written by Mike Makowsky, who himself grew up in Roslyn and attended its schools—wants us to see that the school board and even the families of Roslyn were not innocently blindsided, as portrayed in local news media at the time, but effectively complicit, setting the stage for Tassone and Gluckin. These are some of our most ambitious editorial projects. In movie Roslyn, good equals prestige, in the form of national rankings, Ivy League acceptance rates, pedigreed teachers, and fancy bells and whistles. HBO's new film, Bad Education, is based on the true story of Frank Tassone. Now that story, the biggest school embezzlement case in US history, is retold in the new movie Bad Education, starring Hugh Jackman as Frank … In many ways, it was a dream job: The school was among the most highly ranked in the country, in an upscale town in the New York City metropolitan area, and the pay was excellent. I wanted out, as soon as possible, and left after just a year. His undoing is his own doing. Premiering on April 25, Bad Education is the true story of a scandal that rocked the community of Roslyn on Long Island, New York back in the early 2000s. Crucially, at the basis of both scandals lies the belief that a good education is the ticket to success. Though he’s better looking and less creepy than the real Tassone, Jackman pretty much nails him. As reported in, In total, $11 million was reported to have been stolen, but the people involved were only able to be, Speaking to the local Long Island outlet The Island Now, Makowksy said. But, you probably haven’t forgotten Emme Muñiz’s performance with, We’ve gotten little tea sandwich-sized bites of what’s in store for The Crown’s upcoming season, but Netflix finally has fed us (scone-sized?) © 2020 Quartz Media, Inc. All rights reserved. First, The Masked Sing, You may not remember who won the Super Bowl — or even who played in The Big Game. The gripping true-life crime drama “Bad Education” is based on a suburban scandal that in the early aughts shook the Roslyn School District on the North Shore of Long Island, New York The crimes of Bad Education are unraveled through an investigation by student reporter Rachel Bhargava, and although the character and her scoop are based only loosely on real life, it calls to mind great journalism movies, like a student version of Spotlight. The internet's ubiquity is making it harder to form human connections, and stay in touch with ourselves. The Real Story Behind HBO's Bad Education Rocked NY, While the Masked Singer’s group-per-week format is no longer new, the series is finding plenty of ground to break in season 4. The trailer, however, doesn’t offer much by way of specifics, except to note that it’s based on a, america education system vs china education system, cheapest online associate degree programs, images of profesional lacrosse individual training. And as in the film, some students relished a spot on the staff of the Hilltop Beacon newspaper mostly because it looked good on college applications. News for the next era, not just the next hour.