From the Homeschool Legal Defense Association comes this important news. Here’s a clip and link to the full article.
National Databases: Collecting Student-Specific Data is unnecessary and Orwellian
http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/2013/201304090.asp
Overview
HSLDA has previously written articles expressing concerns with the Common Core Standards established in 2009 and the move toward national standards, curriculum, and tests.
A related concern is the rise of state databases of student-specific data, and the recent push toward aligning them between states. We believe that this will lead to a national database of student-specific data.
Home School Legal Defense Association has long opposed the creation of a national database of student-specific data. We believe that such national databases threaten the privacy of students, could be abused by government officials or business interests that may gain access to the data, threaten the safety of young people if their data is breached, and are not necessary in order to educate young people. Education should be about instilling academic knowledge, not some Orwellian attempt to track students from pre-school through college graduation. We believe that although these databases are being advanced by individual states, they are aligned between the states, and are being funded in part through the federal government’s Race to the Top program. They are becoming a de facto national database.
HSLDA is working to determine if these databases include the personal data of students who are educated in homeschool or private school settings. We have confirmed that New York City school district is including the data of homeschool students in the New York state database. This is extremely concerning to HSLDA and homeschool parents. We are currently investigating if other states are doing this. And we believe that as national databases grow, it will become increasingly difficult to protect the personal information of homeschool and private school students.
How Did a “National Database” Get off the Ground?