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From: "Singleton, Norman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FW: Collecting Personal Data on Students Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 13:30:31 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Norman Kirk Singleton Legislative Director Congressman Ron Paul US House of Representatives 202-225-2831 (ph) 202-226-4871 (fx) -----Original Message----- Maple River Education Coalition (MREdCo) 1402 Concordia Avenue St. Paul, MN 55104 651-646-0646 http://www.MREdCo.com April 23, 2002 Last November, we sent out information on the mushrooming data collecting system in the schools. (See "Testing and Data Collection," http://www.mredco.com/updatenov26.html) A centralized data collection system under the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) has a national standardized system on all students "about the students' background, learning experiences, and performance." It includes their beliefs, detailed medical records, family situations, and on and on. According to the following article, "The Ohio Department of Education said the database will bring the state in line with federal guidelines requiring increased accountability from schools." There's that word "accountability" again. The federal government is holding local school districts "accountable" to them in every way. Once more, this is a violation of the tenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Collecting Personal Data on Students http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/3096047.htm April 19, 2002 Students' personal data to go to state Akron school officials raise privacy, security fears over details sought By Reginald Fields Beacon Journal staff writer The state wants to get to know its public school children in extraordinary detail, asking school districts under a little-known law to provide personal information on students such as their mother's maiden name for a new database. The Ohio Department of Education said the database will bring the state in line with federal guidelines requiring increased accountability from schools. But local school officials are worried that Ohio is infringing on student and family privacy and does not need such personal information to ensure classroom accountability. The Statewide Student Identifier System is to set up an identification number for all 1.8 million students in public schools. Those in private schools would not be part of the system. The education department has hired the PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm to collect the student data and assign the identification numbers. To guard against duplication in assigning the numbers, the state wants to know each student's Social Security number, eye color, mother's maiden name, dates of immunizations and other personal details on a 43-item checklist. Local districts will use the identification numbers to pass on the students' academic records to the education department, including their classes, their grades, and any disciplinary actions against them. By law, the education department cannot have specific academic details linked to students' names -- thus the need for the identification numbers. PricewaterhouseCoopers, however, will permanently maintain a database of student names and their personal information. ``Ultimately, this will allow us to see what students need help and what programs are effective, while at the same time keeping student names private,'' said J.C. Benton, an education department spokesman. [...] Reginald Fields can be reached at 330-996-3743 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign this pro-therapeutic cloning petition: http://www.franklinsociety.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------
