Commonwealth Documentary Summary

Commonwealth, a documentary which takes place in Pennsylvania 's oldest city Philadelphia, focuses on schools being shut down and prisons being built. The film documents communities in which the states ' prisons are being funded while making shortages to the public educational funds. Moreover, Philadelphia is ranked as the eighth largest school district within the United States. Additionally, for many years Philadelphia 's public education has needed financial help. In addition to this, studies have shown that even state wide public education needs financial help. A budget called "Doomsday" passed by the Philadelphia 's School Reform Commission had stripped many schools of their resources. For instance, many schools that opened in the fall …show more content…
In addition to this, spending less money can easily be funded to public education. Many parents and students were in disgrace by this and established a organization. Youth United for Change, focuses on meeting the educational needs of Philadelphia 's public schools. Furthermore, the organization believes that every young individual deserves a good quality education. After watching Commonwealth, I have concluded that Philadelphia has a lot of unfortunate dilemmas. I believe that prisons are being built due to the high rates of incarceration. Structural changes in society has unfolded over the years that has contributed to criminalizing of the working class. Additionally, many individuals depend on jobs, wages, and social assistance. Once a society displays less jobs, paying low wages or stop social assistance, many result to a fast life. Individuals involved in a fast life do illegal jobs such as drug dealing or do illegal activities such as gang banging. Part-taking in this leads a individual to be arrested and then incarcerated in which contributes to high incarcerated