H.R. 551: The Student Privacy Protection Act

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Many of us are angry and frustrated at our inability to end the Iraq quagmire. And every week brings new reports about Pentagon recruiters lying to our children to get them to join. The so-called No Child Left Behind Act has a little-known provision that mandates schools to provide our children's personal information to the Pentagon so they can be recruited into the armed forces.

H.R. 551 changes the personal information provision to an "opt-in" rather than "opt-out" process. Instead of having to sign a form opting out of having information go to recruiters, parents would sign a form giving permission for that data to be given.

Tell your congressperson to support this bill:

http://truemajority.kintera.org/LeaveMyChildAlone

A big thanks to California's Congressman Mike Honda for introducing this bill:

http://www.honda.house.gov/latestnews.asp?ARTICLE3753=5321&SRCH3753=Student+Privacy+Protection

Especially because many schools are lax in informing parents about the fact that they can opt out of this nonsense.

You can also opt your kid out of the standardized testing mandated by NCLB; that is buried even deeper, since the schools are heavily penalized if they don't test the required percentage (95%)of kids.

One courageous superintendent, William Cala in Fairport NY, has refused to comply with the portion requiring him to report student info to military recruiters; instead he used an "opt in" procedure. He's been under fire for that decision; this spring the army sent a uniformed Colonel to his office "discuss" his district's non-compliance. Citizens throwing their public support behind this bill is a good way to show some appreciation for the few who have faced consequences for refusing to comply and being found in violation of the law.

How fascinating. Here in DC, most schools are so desperate to make that 95 percent number that everyone gets tested -- including, at my friend's former school, ESL students who literally had gotten off the boat the week before and knew no English.

:eyes:

Schools and districts are under enormous pressure to test every last student, no matter what, so they aren't going to volunteer that information, or make it easy. Right now significant piece of the "testing wars" is the fight to keep them from basing promotion or graduation on those test scores; who would not take the test, in that case?

Meanwhile, parents can request that their child be given work to do somewhere else on testing days. If the school refuses, and the parent doesn't want to take it to court, the child can just stay home on testing days, and go on family field trips, etc.. Of course, if that child had attendance problems during the year, missing testing days can land you back in the fire with too many days out to be promoted. Some states have groups that organize opt out forms and actions for parents, but you have to know about them to work with them.