Today is big.
The federal district court in Washington, D.C. is hearing arguments today from Khalia Barnes and Marc Rotenburg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in support of nationwide student privacy, in support of parental consent laws, in support of protective definitions of terms.
So, who on earth is on the opposite team? Who’s actually arguing against student privacy? Drumroll….
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
Yes, really.
Read:
EPIC to Defend Student Privacy Rights in Federal Court
On July 24, EPIC President Marc Rotenberg and EPIC Administrative Law Counsel Khaliah Barnes will present arguments in federal district court in Washington, DC in support of student privacy. In EPIC v. Dept. of Education, No. 12-327, 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. In 2011, EPIC submitted extensive comments to the agency opposing the changes. After the Education Department failed to modify the proposed regulation, EPIC filed a lawsuit and argued that the agency exceeded its authority with the changes, and also that the revised regulations are not in accordance with the 1974 privacy law. EPIC is joined in the lawsuit by members of the EPIC Board of Directors Grayson Barber, Pablo Garcia Molina, Peter Neumann, and Deborah Peel. For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. The U.S. Department of Education and EPIC: Student Privacy.
http://epic.org/2013/07/epic-to-defend-student-privacy.html
The big question is, why isn’t this gigantic, unbelievable story being covered by the mainstream media?
It’s not important enough? People don’t really care about the privacy rights of children? Parents don’t really care that their parental consent rights have been undercut by the U.S. Department of Education? It’s no big deal that the U.S. Department of Education redefined terms that include “directory information,” “educational agency,” and “authorized representative,” –loosening and widening each term to make students’ privacy easier to hack?
No big deal?
Shame on the mainstream media for blacking this out in favor of non-news, celebrity scandals and trumped-up racism stories.
Share, share, share.
COMMON CORE 
Well don’t be surprised if the Supreme Court votes in favor of the Dept. of Education. If they do then we might as well turn out the lights people. Our arguments about data and the privacy of our children will be void. They will use this decision to destroy our battle against Common Core. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY the SC does the right thing.
No kidding…. 😦
homeschool!
So bad! UGH!
When the last sane person finally leaves our once proud and wonderful country, please turn out the lights.
If they do, the next step is figure out how to opt-out of everything data related – the directory, in-school data collection, surveys, tests, etc…whatever it takes. It is time to teach our children about their civil rights!
Any news on the outcome yet?
Is there a result in this yet?