Anirban Basu
Ramona S. Diaz
While a partnership between an economist and a filmmaker may seem incongruous, a mutual inclination toward fact and truth is enough to ally Anirban Basu with Ramona S. Diaz. Basu, chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group, relies on hard reality for business. Meanwhile, renowned documentary filmmaker Diaz depends upon authenticity for her craft. With the idea in mind that the future of Baltimore correlates directly with city youth, Basu and Diaz assess the city school system through the impartiality of a camera lens. They use the cinematic medium to record their observations about a unique teacher experiment and how it is impacting both students and teachers.
photo by Mitro Hood
by Anirban Basu and Ramona S. Diaz
What would it really take to attract qualified teachers to the city and truly leave no child behind?
"Famously parochial Baltimore City decided to radically expand the geographic reach of its teacher recruitment to include the other side of the world," explains Anirban Basu. "And why not the Philippines? It is a nation with a high proportion of English speakers, a nation known for its capacity to generate graduates with a deep and abiding interest in mathematics and science, and a nation with a historic connection to America. What we have on our hands is a permanent solution, not merely an interesting experiment."
