The letter Norman sent Friday to the Attorney
General and the Regents on behalf of Class Size Matters and other parent groups is posted here: http://bit.ly/W6H2qV
A background memo on these issues is here. I don't think it is an overstatement to say this whole project represents perhaps the most serious erosion of privacy in our nation's history.
For Immediate Release: October 14, 2012
For more information contact:
Attorney and Parents
Send Letter to NYS Attorney General & Education Officials Questioning
Legality of Providing Confidential Student Data to Limited Corporation and
Demanding Parental Right to Consent
On
Sunday, October 14, at a press conference held at the midtown law offices of
Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans LLP, attorney Norman Siegel and New York parents
released a letter sent Friday to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New
York State Board of Regents, demanding that the agreement between the NY State
Education Department and the “Shared Learning Collaborative” be released,
setting out the conditions and restrictions on the use of confidential student
and teacher data to be provided to this limited corporation. The letter
asked that parents be informed exactly what information concerning their
children will be shared with this corporation, why the transfer of this data
does not violate federal privacy protections, and demanding that the parents
have the right to withhold their children’s information from being shared.
Background: In Aug.
25, 2011, NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli informed the NY State Education
Department that he was rejecting its proposed no-bid contract with Wireless
Generation to build a state data system, composed of confidential student and
teacher information because of privacy concerns. Wireless Generation is a
subsidiary of News Corporation. Several high-ranking former executives
and employees of the News Corporation in the UK were being investigated for
violations of privacy and bribing public officials. As the State Comptroller
wrote, "in light of the significant ongoing investigations and
continuing revelations with respect to News Corporation, we are returning the
contract with Wireless Generation unapproved." Since
then, the scandal has continued to grow, with the number of indicted News
Corporation officials expanding in number.
Yet
four months later, in December, the NY Board of Regents approved NYSED’s plan
to provide this confidential student and teacher data to a limited corporation,
called the Shared
Learning Collaborative LLC (SLC). The Gates
Foundation awarded $76.5 million to form
this LLC, with $44 million going to Wireless
Generation, to design and operate the system. According to the SLC’s
website, New York is one of five
states – along with Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and North Carolina –
participating in Phase I of this project, starting in late 2012. The pilot
districts are Jefferson
County School District (CO); Unit 5 (Normal, IL); District 87 (Bloomington,
IL); Everett (MA); Guilford County Schools (NC), and NYC. Four more states – Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky and
Louisiana – have committed to join Phase II in 2013. Though New York City
is one of the pilot districts, the city’s parents have been told nothing about
this project, and the state has not shared its agreement with the SLC about the
use and protection of this data, despite several requests to do so.
Apart from the lack of parental
disclosure and privacy concerns, the SLC website makes it clear that this
student data will be used to help companies develop and market educational
products. However FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act, appears not to allow the sharing of confidential student
information for commercial purposes.
Leonie
Haimson, the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, said: “Just this week in
Washington the Federal Trade Commission announced sweeping new protections for
children’s privacy data. The reason is simple: abuses are rampant, and once a
child’s identity is in the marketplace it cannot be called back or protected.
We stand with the FTC, every major privacy advocacy group, and all concerned
parents in opposing any action to relax child privacy protections, including
this plan by the NY State Education Department and the NYC Department of
Education, to share confidential information about our public school students
without their parents’ knowledge or consent.”
Janice
Bloom, a member of ParentVoicesNY and a parent of a kindergarten student and a
3rd grader in a Brooklyn public school, said, “I am outraged that
the state and the city would have agreed to share our children’s confidential
data with a private corporation, without telling us anything about it. I am
even more upset that this data is apparently being made available to companies
for the purpose of marketing commercial products to the public school system.
Parents need to be fully informed of the purpose and ramifications of this
project, and provided with the right to opt out. I do not believe that
public schools should be in the business of exploiting children for profit.”
Karen
Sprowal, the mother of a 4th grader, added: “As a parent of a
special needs child, I need to be especially vigilant as to where my child’s
information ends up, who gains access to it and for what reason. I think
that the State and the City owe a detailed explanation to me and other NYC
parents what the purpose of this project is, as well as an apology for having
decided to go forward without telling us a word about it in advance.”
As Nancy
Cauthen, a member of the organization Change the Stakes and the mother of a 6th
and a 10th grader in NYC public schools said: “The erosion of
privacy that this project represents is part and parcel of the pillaging of
public education for private gain. The fact that Rupert Murdoch’s News
Corporation is involved makes me even more fearful that my child’s privacy will
be violated and abused.”
Julie
Cavanagh, a special education teacher in Brooklyn, explained: “As a public
school teacher I am concerned not only for the privacy of my students, and the
way this data will be provided to for-profit enterprises, but I am also worried
that this national database may be used to blacklist members of the teaching
profession. Though the National Academy of Sciences and other expert
groups have concluded that teacher evaluation systems based on student test
scores are not to be trusted, the Gates Foundation seems intent on foisting
these systems on the nation. When the DOE’s unreliable teacher data reports
were released, Murdoch’s NY Post not only published them in the paper, but
tracked down and harassed teachers who had received low ratings. ”
Tracy
Pyper, the Advocacy Chair of the Westchester/East Putnam Region PTA,
said: "I was extremely troubled to learn that NY State has
decided to hand over student personal information to Rupert Murdoch's Wireless
Generation, without asking or even telling their parents about this. And
while I realize that at this point, only NYC data is being provided, it is just
a matter of time before all of our children in NY State may have their
confidential information shared. Once parents are made aware of how the
state is making critical decisions about our children’s private information,
without parental consent, they will be very concerned. I strongly urge
the State Education Department to halt all further action until they can
explain exactly what personal information will be provided to Wireless
Generation, what safeguards they are taking to protect the information, and most
importantly, give parents the right to opt out.”
Norman
Siegel, attorney, concluded: “The risks are real and immediate. The State
Education Department has a fundamental responsibility to protect the privacy
rights of public school children and their families. Before a single child's
information is turned over to the Shared Learning Collaborative (a joint
venture of the Gates Foundation and Wireless Generation LLC), our education
officials must guarantee that no harm will come to New York school children by
meeting the following requirements:
·
Publish the agreement with SLC in printed and electronic form, include a
thorough explanation of its purpose and provisions, and make it available
to parents and local school authorities statewide;
·
Hold hearings throughout the state to explain the agreement, answer questions
from the public, obtain informed comment, and gauge public reaction;
·
Notify all parents of the impending disclosure, and provide them with a right
to consent;
·
Define what rights families or individuals will have to obtain relief if harmed
by improper use or release of their private information, including how claims
can be made;
·
Agree to allow no disclosure of public school records until the State Education
Department and the NYC Department of Education meets all of its ethical,
security, and statutory obligations to the parents and public school children
of the city and state;
·
Ensure that the privacy interest of public school children and their families
are put above the interests of the Shared Learning Collaborative, News
Corporation and its agents and subsidiaries.”
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