Four dizzying minutes about schools, money, politics, and dysfunction. That’s how I’d describe The Machine: The Truth Behind Teachers Unions, a new short film produced by the Moving Picture Institute and Reason TV. Here’s the Reason synopsis:

America's public education system is failing. We're spending more money on education but not getting better results for our children. 

That's because the machine that runs the K-12 education system isn't designed to produce better schools. It's designed to produce more money for unions and more donations for politicians.

For decades, teachers' unions have been among our nation's largest political donors. As Reason Foundation's Lisa Snell has noted, the National Education Association (NEA) alone spent $40 million on the 2010 election cycle. As the country's largest teachers union, the NEA is only one cog in the infernal machine that robs parents of their tax dollars and students of their futures.

Students, teachers, parents, and hardworking Americans are all victims of this political machine–a system that takes money out of taxpayers' wallets and gives it to union bosses, who put it in the pockets of politicians. 

Our kids deserve better.