Little known to the public are changes in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in 2011 by the Education Department. The changes allow for the release of student records for non-academic purposes. Parents and educators alike fear this information will be sold to for-profit companies, going against all current parental consent provisions.
The implications of this are dubious at best. Every standardized test your child takes, whether on paper or computer, will store and share a variety of personal information — race, economic background, discipline records and personal addresses — with corporate vendors. These corporations can then use this information for their own profit motives and purposes. As Rupert Murdoch stated, "When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed."
The private information of your children is now for sale.
Luckily, there are some advocates for your child. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a lawsuit challenging the 2011 FERPA regulations.
But parents need to speak up as well. The repudiation of basic privacy rights for children is a byproduct of the Common Core and its subsequent assessments. inBloom, the major beneficiary of this information, owned by Bill Gates, is receiving $50 million for its services from the New York Education Department. According to inBloom's privacy policy, it "cannot guarantee the security of the information stored in inBloom or that the information will not be intercepted when it is being transmitted."
Ironically enough, Gates is one of the biggest advocates for all this "reform" to fix our so-called broken schools. "So-called," because our middle class and affluent schools test near the top of the world. It's the 23 percent who live in poverty that struggle. This fact is always conveniently omitted.
Also, perhaps coincidentally, Gates has all the technology to "fix" these problems. Supposedly, he just needs your child's information to do it. Amplify Education, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is also in on the venture.
I find it extremely problematic that we have gotten to the point where the state Education Department can so wantonly sell away the privacy rights of our children without our knowledge. High stakes testing and the implementation of the unproven Common Core Standards have many implications and consequences beyond the pressure it places on its students, but this may be the worst. They are reflective of misguided, developmentally inappropriate mandates that "dumb down" our classrooms by narrowing the curriculum and promote teaching to a test. They imbed questions in tests for marketing purposes. And, we now know that they sell that information to "for profit" organizations at the expense of our children's privacy.
This business model of school reform needs to end. The education policymakers who promote it are tethered to company profits, and it is destroying public education.
If you doubt this assertion, look to the privately run schools where these "leaders" send their kids. No high stakes tests, no sharing of private information, just self-directed, creative, "outside the box" learning. Students in these environments love learning due to its relaxed, alert environment and enriched, engaging pedagogy. It involves smaller class sizes, collaboration and innovative thought. Shouldn't your child have such an enriching environment? Shouldn't policymakers advocate for this type of education for all?
At some point, we have to ask ourselves, why is it that what's good for the kids of education policymakers, is not good enough for our own?
The writer is from Troy.