Student Data Privacy

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has released resources for K-12 teachers and local officials on managing student privacy and ensuring disabled students receive required services during school closures due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A new report finds that, under the guise of “personalized learning,” school-issued computer devices — now distributed to one-third of K-12 students in schools across the United States — are serving to collect and store an unprecedented amount of personal data on children without their parents’ notice or consent.

Betsy DeVos announced upon her nomination as U.S. education secretary that she is “certainly not a supporter” of Common Core, even though the organizations she funded and supported through her service are avid proponents of the controversial education reform.

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump says that, if elected, he would close the loopholes in the federal privacy law to ensure that students’ personal information remained private.

Republican 2016 contender Sen. Marco Rubio pressed for an expansion of vocational education in order for America to compete in the “global economy” while campaigning in Wisconsin Monday ahead of the GOP debate Tuesday evening.

In a video made available to Breitbart News, GOP presidential contender John Kasich responds to an activist parent’s challenge about his failure to protect private student data in his state. The Ohio governor replied that he had no clue what she was talking about.

The House’s version of the redo, known as the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), was pulled from the House floor by GOP leadership in late February after it was determined the measure lacked sufficient support. Grassroots parents’ groups – many that have been fighting against the Common Core standards in their states – voiced their concerns that the Student Success Act still required excessive federal intrusion into the right of states to set their own education policies.

Potential 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush has made it clear that he will continue his support for the controversial Common Core standards initiative, despite the fact that the conservative base of the GOP is overwhelmingly opposed to it. His education foundation, in fact, is offering online courses for policy-makers focusing on how to promote the idea that the standards are necessary for national security, why data collection is essential, and how to win over parents, teachers, and citizens in the education reform conversation.

After enticing states into a binding promise to develop their student databases, President Obama now says he will call for legislation that will protect students from commercial data mining.