From Diane Ravitch's blog:
In 2009 and again in 2011, the U.S. Department of Education changed the regulations in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), making it easier for third parties to gain access to private information about students. The DOE is being sued by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on behalf of student privacy. “EPIC is challenging recent changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) that allow the release of student records for non-academic purposes and undercut parental consent provisions.” At bottom, this is about Arne Duncan’s desire to clear the way for inBloom, the $100 million Gates-Carnegie-Murdoch project to collect personal student data and make it available to vendors for commercial uses.
I was aware of this change in 2009 based on the role I played in my former school district. I wondered at the time why it was not more widely publicized. At the time, I was told the only information that was collected was student/parent names and addresses. Isn't that enough? I don't know if she is correct about this being a part of a sinister 'plan' on the part of Arne Duncan and company, but I have a major problem with the access of student records distributed to anyone without parental consent. Arguments were actually presented today in Federal District Court.
I was aware of this change in 2009 based on the role I played in my former school district. I wondered at the time why it was not more widely publicized. At the time, I was told the only information that was collected was student/parent names and addresses. Isn't that enough? I don't know if she is correct about this being a part of a sinister 'plan' on the part of Arne Duncan and company, but I have a major problem with the access of student records distributed to anyone without parental consent. Arguments were actually presented today in Federal District Court.
I've been pretty convinced all along that education has sold out to the corporations, but I tend to be cynical in general about these things. It does make me uneasy to see all of these corps becoming the tail wagging the dog.
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