Data Privacy Day: send a message to the NY State Ed today, demanding that your child's data NOT be shared with private corporations

UPDATE:  See the great letter Sen. Liz Krueger just sent to Commissioner King about this issue, here and below.

Dear Parents:  Today is Data Privacy Day.    Here are some questions you can ask your school about your child’s private education records.

Unfortunately, we already know that NY State intends to share the most private information from your child’s educational records with the Shared Learning Collaborative, a project of the Gates Foundation, without your consent, who in turn intends to hand it over to private for-profit companies.

This information is supposed to include your child’s name, test scores, grades, disciplinary and attendance records, special education status and much more. The information will be put on a data cloud run by Amazon.com, with a system built by Wireless Generation, owned by Rupert Murdoch and run by Joel Klein.  Here is a fact sheet about this issue. 

Please email State Ed Commissioner John King today, with a copy to Chancellor Walcott and Stacey Childress of the Gates Foundation, demanding that your child’s information NOT be shared with ANY third parties, including the Gates Foundation.  Also copy the email to Michele Cahill of the Carnegie Corporation, which is supposedly in charge of the long-term governance and business plan for a new, separate corporation that will soon take over the project from the Gates Foundation.

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To:  jking@mail.nysed.gov

CC: DMWalcott@schools.nyc.gov, stacey.childress@gatesfoundation.org, mc@carnegie.org

Dear Commissioner King:

As a NYC public school parent I demand that you NOT share any of my child’s confidential information with ANY third parties, including the Gates Foundation or ANY other private entity or corporation.  I do not give my consent.

Instead, I ask that you hold public hearings in NYC to explain the purpose of this project, offer all New York parents the right to consent as the law requires, and inform the public who will be legally and financially responsible if this highly sensitive data leaks out or is used in an unauthorized fashion.

Yours,

Signed: [Your Name and address]

Parent [or legal guardian] of [your Child’s full name, grade and school]

Senator Krueger's letter to Commissioner King by Molly