They didn’t even try to sweeten the name of this bill. They are now using our children for research and they want to do even more research with our children as the guinea pigs. We are on this slippery slope and it is now time to stand and say, “Enough!” Just say NO!!!
From flstopcccoalition:
February, 2015
Besides urging a not vote on HR 5, the Student Success Act that replaces No Child Left Behind, please contact your US representatives to vote NO on S 227, the Senate version of the federal data mining bill. Having already passed the Senate last year and about to be passed again, it is scheduled for a vote on Wednesday February 25th in the US House. S 227, the Strengthening Education through Research Act (SETRA) reauthorizes the 2002 Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) that has been very problematic, because it started the concept of state longitudinal databases, stepped around the prohibition on a national database by creating “national cooperative education statistics systems,” allowed personally identifiable information to go to international agencies, and removed the previous penalties of fines and imprisonment for misusing individual student data. SETRA continues or worsens all of that. Here are four major problems with SETRA (A detailed analysis of these points is available at http://bit.ly/1CYg31N):
- SETRA seeks to expand federal psychological profiling of our children
Section 132 of the bill (page 28, line 16-21) inserts the following:
”and which may include research on social and emotional learning, and the acquisition of competencies and skills, including the ability to think critically, solve complex problems, evaluate evidence, and communicate effectively…” (Emphasis added).
The US Department of Education (USED) is already a flagrant violation of the Tenth Amendment. The amount of data collected on individual children, families, and teachers via USED through this law and the weakening and loopholes of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) that provided individual data to the federal government is appalling and a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment as well. To then give the federal government the right to research the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors of free American citizens, especially innocent children, is completely unacceptable and without justification.
- SETRA only appears to prohibit a national database.
Section 157 of the bill takes out the word “national” and still only by words, prohibits a national database. While this appears to be an improvement, it unfortunately doesn’t do anything to stop the egregious loss of privacy that has happened since ESRA established the national cooperative statistics systems and state longitudinal databases in 2002. These databases have been enhanced by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, Stimulus), Race to the Top, and the America COMPETES Act. In addition they are relying on outdated and weak student privacy laws (FERPA and PPRA), there is no enforcement mechanism, and we have seen how the federal government repeatedly and flagrantly violates its promises not to extend its authority, as with Race to the Top, Common Core and the national tests.
- The bill continues to rely on a severely outdated and weakened FERPA to protect student privacy.
Both ESRA and SETRA refer to FERPA (20 USC 1232g) in Section 182 and requires data privacy to be handled according to that law. However, FERPA passed in 1974 long before the presence of interoperable databases and cloud computing. It also only discusses sanctions on entities that mishandle the data and those, which used to include fines and imprisonment, were severely weakened when ESRA was passed in 2002. Students, families, and teachers whose sensitive personal and family data about everything from “social and emotional” issues to genetic data in newborn screening data, have no redress. According to an investigation by Politico, education technology companies are “scooping up as many as 10 million unique data points on each child, each day.” (Emphasis added) Finally, FERPA has been severely weakened via regulatory fiat to gut consent requirements and broaden access to data by federal agencies and private entities.
- SETRA continues the large loophole that renders PPRA ineffective in protecting student privacy.
PPRA, cited in section 182 as 20 USC 1232h, prohibits the collection of psychological, political, religious, and other sensitive data in surveys, but not in curriculum and assessments such as in Common Core.
I am so tired of K-12 being referred to as an “education lab” or “the K-12 industry”. My grandchildren are not in school for experimental purposes. Nor are they there to meet the money making needs of the industry, through fine grain data mining and the greedy data mongers of big government! Parents have the right to direct the education of their children through their taxpayer dollars free of experimentation. Just because the money goes through the government before it gets to the school, does not give the government carte blanche to do whatever they please. If we don’t stand for our children, who will? Certainly not the government!!
Voting no on both S 227 and HR 5 is a no brainer.
S 227 is also up for a vote this week. Please contact Rep. Kristi Noem, Sen. John Thune, and Sen. Mike Rounds immediately and tell them to vote “NO” on S227 and HR 5. My understanding is that both bills are up for a vote this week. Please contact them immediately.
South Dakotans Against Common Core 