Education spending in America has more than doubled in the last four decades – yet math and reading scores have flat-lined.

What's the remedy? A panel of educators at Stanford cautioned against the quick policy cures implied in the explosive Waiting for Superman.

The controversial film, directed by Davis Guggenheim (of An Inconvenient Truth fame), made the cover of Time, was touted on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was awarded the audience award for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It premiered at Stanford School of Education's Cubberley Auditorium on Monday, Oct. 4.

The panel discussion afterward was cautiously supportive of the 90-minute film, which offers a disturbing window into the lives and hopes of five at-risk kids and their families.

The panel, moderated by Michael Krasny of KQED, included Stanford education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, an education adviser to President Obama; San Francisco's Valerie Ziegler, one of the five 2010 California Teachers of the Year and a member of Stanford's Accomplished California Teachers Network; and Eric Hanushek,  a senior fellow and education analyst at the Hoover Institution. Hanushek is featured in the film.

While critics charge the film with attacking unions, bashing teachers, distracting viewers from economic inequities and upholding standardized testing, the panelists took away a different message.

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