Arne Duncan and DOE’s End Around Congress to Change FERPA, Invade Student Privacy
This article was originally posted at Caffeinated Thoughts.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the educrats at the U.S. Department of Education know that Congress would never vote to codify the changes they seek in the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) so they’re changing up regulations in order to do so. They want to allow private and invasive information to be gathered on students and families in order to supply the workforce.
This has nothing to do with improving the education that children receive. The sole purpose for these changes are to data mine and pass that information along to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Labor who will then provide it to the private sector workforce.
Public comment is open until Monday, May 23rd. You can make a public comment here. Missouri Education Watchdog provided a helpful information sheet that breaks down further which I’m including below.
OBJECT TO DOE’S PROPOSED INVASION OF STUDENT PRIVACY
The Department of Education (DOE) has proposed regulatory changes that would gut the primary federal student-privacy statute, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA imposes strict limits on how the government may use so-called Personally Identifiable Information (PII) collected on students by schools or government education agencies. Under the proposed changes to the regulations issued under FERPA, DOE would [...]
How To Fix Our Schools
I'm not one to spend time commenting on something as innocuous as a movie, but I just finished watching something that was both compelling and surprising.
Davis Guggenheim's documentary "Waiting For Superman" had my attention for the entire 111 minutes, and I learned some important things about the successes of some alternative charter schools, the bureaucratic nightmares that have impeded some schools from succeeding, and most importantly the devastating stranglehold that the teacher's unions exert in ensuring that teachers are as demotivated as possible. The story of the attempts by the District of Columbia school district to partner with the teacher's union to create a pathway to success is scandalous, and clearly ensures that failing teachers never have to be held accountable.
I get why unions came to exist, and I get the fact that some unions may actually still create value in some situations. However, I think we are far past seeing any value in government and education unions. Watching the president of the American Federation of Teachers extoll [...]
Biblical Worldview of ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’
Prior to the start of the school year, a parent very wisely asked me to write an article which essentially responds to the following question - "How can a Christian effectively respond to ‘Walking with Dinosaurs: The Life Experience,' a traveling stage show which depicts dinosaurs as they lived prior to extinction?" The "Walking with Dinosaurs" production is described by the producers as a "dazzling arena spectacle of unprecedented size and quality," and it is scheduled in Des Moines for October 1-5 at the Iowa Events Center. What's the rub?! Why any controversy?! Dinosaurs are cool! Dinosaurs fascinate people, particularly schoolchildren. "There's no harm in studying dinosaurs," you might say.Don’t Check Your Brains at the Schoolhouse Gate!
On August 19, 2008, I joined a panel of Christian school educators on Steve Deace’s WHO AM-1040 Radio program to discuss a recent California Supreme Court ruling which upheld The University of California system’s right to deny college credit to students who had...Stay in Touch
