Amidst growing concerns from parents and teachers surrounding
the Common Core State Standards and the Federal government’s control of
classroom curriculum, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) has prepared a Student
Privacy Protection Request form for use by parents who wish to protect their
children by opting-out of Common Core aligned curricula, data mining and the
release of information concerning their children’s personal beliefs.
The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest
law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, designed the comprehensive opt-out form for
parents concerned about Common Core and who want to protect their children’s
privacy from educational data mining. The form allows parents to choose which
Common Core State Standards and data driven practices they do not want their
children to be a part of, including standardized testing. (See Link)o http://www.thomasmore.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Student-Privacy-Protection-Request-Opt-Out-Request-Form.pdf?lp_redirect_7656=http://www.thomasmore.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Student-Privacy-Protection-Request-Opt-Out-Request-Form.pdf&wp-cta-v=0
The form allows
parents to opt-out of sharing their child’s information with the federal
government, as well as outside agencies and private contractors. Information
which parents can opt-out of sharing ranges from test scores and religious and
political beliefs, to biographic, biometric, and psychometric data, such as
fingerprints, DNA and information related to children’s personality and
aptitude.
Richard Thompson, TMLC
President and Chief Counsel, commented, “The opt-out form is based on the
constitutionally recognized fundamental right of parents to direct the
education of their children and on federal statutes which were designed to
protect student privacy. Our Founding Fathers recognized the dangers to
our freedoms posed by centralized control over public education. However,
today, all but a handful of state governments, enticed by millions of dollars
in federal grants, are voluntarily inviting the federal government to take
control of our public schools, imposing untested educational standards and
obtaining personal information on children and their parents which would make
any totalitarian government blush with envy. We must ever keep in
mind, ‘The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will become the
philosophy of the government in the next.’ Clearly, Common Core is a threat to
individual privacy and liberty, and to our Constitutional Republic.”
Religious and private
school educators have also criticized Common Core. In a statement the Cardinal
Newman Society, an organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of
faithful Catholic education said, “This school reform effort is nothing short
of a revolution in how education is provided, relying on a technocratic,
top-down approach to setting national standards that, despite claims to the
contrary, will drive curricula, teaching texts, and the content of standardized
tests. At its heart, the Common Core is a woefully inadequate set of
standards in that it limits the understanding of education to a utilitarian
‘readiness for work’ mentality.”
Political Commentators
Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin have repeatedly reported on the dangers and
horrors of Common Core, with Malkin saying, “It’s about control, control and
more control.”
The Common Core State
Standards (CCSS) were developed under the supervision of the National Governors
Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), with
funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to ensure that education
and educational outcomes were consistent across the United States. The CCSS
provides a set of standards they claim are “essential, rigorous, clear and
specific, coherent, and internationally benchmarked.”
However, the CCSS have
come under heavy fire since the beginning for a variety of grievances
including: incomprehensible, political and inappropriate assignments; costly
ties to big corporations; in-test advertising; the elimination of locally
appropriate standards; and the emphasis placed on standardized testing.
In addition, with the
implementation of the Common Core State Standards, whose educational value has
not been demonstrated, also comes an alarming explosion of data mining within
the classroom. Student data are stored in databases designed to follow
students from their entry into schools in pre-Kindergarten up through their
entry into the workforce. These databases, through a complicated network of
contracts and agreements, can then be shared with the federal government,
contractors, researchers and other outside agencies. Testing corporations can
then analyze the test data, produce recommendations for how to “remediate”
student weaknesses, and then sell that information back to states and school
districts.
These state databases,
often referred to as P-20 systems, like Common Core are tied to federal
funding, through the 2009 Federal Stimulus package and Race to the Top waivers,
and in some instances can contain over 400 individual data points per student
including health-care histories, income information, religious affiliations,
voting status, blood type, likes and dislikes and homework completion. The data
is then available to numerous public agencies. Despite federal student privacy protections
guaranteed by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the
administration is paving the way for private entities to buy the data
while the U.S. Department of Education is encouraging the shift from aggregate
data collection to individual student data collection.
As a result of
concerns expressed by a Michigan member of the TMLC regarding Common Core in
March 2014, the Law Center began its study of the issues regarding the Common
Core Standards. The Student Privacy Protection Opt-Out Request was
designed by the Thomas More Law Center as a result of that study. It is
available as a general reference and guide for all concerned parents.
However, each state has different laws that may impact educational issues
differently. Therefore, if parents are dealing with schools outside of
the state of Michigan, it is important that they consult with a licensed
attorney in their state for additional review and modifications of the opt-out
form to comport with the laws of their respective states.
Additional
Resources
The
Common Core: A Poor Choice for States – The Heartland Institute
Common
Core Issues – Home School Legal
Defense Association
Common
Core: What’s Behind the Language – Rachel Alexander
Common
Core – The Eagle Forum
10 Facts Every Catholic
Should Know About the Common Core – Cardinal Newman Society
Source:http://www.thomasmore.org/news/common-core-state-standards-threat-personal-liberty-thomas-law-center-develops-opt-form-parents/
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