2009 "Stimulus" Bill Encourages Data Mining of Students !

Deep in the Obama 2009 "stimulus" package is some provisions for data collection on students !

By simply following standards set forth by the government, States can qualify for federal money.

Of course, States probably had to hire outside and private consultants to meet the standards.

This New York Post article says that all 50 States are either doing this or are 'capable'.

The Obama administration is asking for things like medical records, test scores, family income and family voting status of all things !

It seems that federal law prohibits these things, hence the reason for setting it up as a "State by State" project !!!
Very clever !
Very sneaky !

Would it bother you to know that the federal Centers for Disease Control had been shown your daughter’s health records to see how she responded to an STD/teen-pregnancy-prevention program? How about if the federal Department of Education and Department of Labor scrutinized your son’s academic performance to see if he should be “encouraged” to leave high school early to learn a trade? Would you think the government was intruding on your territory as a parent?

Under regulations the Obama Department of Education released this month, these scenarios could become reality. The department has taken a giant step toward creating a de facto national student database that will track students by their personal information from preschool through career. Although current federal law prohibits this, the department decided to ignore Congress and, in effect, rewrite the law. Student privacy and parental authority will suffer.

How did it happen? Buried within the enormous 2009 stimulus bill were provisions encouraging states to develop data systems for collecting copious information on public-school kids. To qualify for stimulus money, states had to agree to build such systems according to federally dictated standards. So all 50 states either now maintain or are capable of maintaining extensive databases on public-school students.

The administration wants this data to include much more than name, address and test scores. According to the National Data Collection Model, the government should collect information on health-care history, family income and family voting status. In its view, public schools offer a golden opportunity to mine reams of data from a captive audience.

The department’s eagerness to get control of all this information is almost palpable. But current federal law prohibits a nationwide student database and strictly limits disclosure of a student’s personal information. So the department has determined that it can overcome the legal obstacles by simply bypassing Congress and essentially rewriting the federal privacy statute.

How the feds are tracking your kid

Amazing how they think of ways to bypass laws !

reply to post by xuenchen


I read that earlier today, very sneaky of them. The pretense of it being for the "good" of the kids is laughable. Lots of very interesting things were in the stimulus bills. If you recall they also paid for the batf gun running programs with them. It just seems that the stimulus was a farce to get some sneaky stuff done.