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Pushing to Protect Student PrivacyRecently, two lawmakers continued to press for student-privacy legislation by announcing the results of a new federal report on commercialism in schools. Earlier this year, when introducing separate privacy bills, both Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., had called for the General Accounting Office study on the sale of products and direct advertising in public schools. Because the report made no recommendations, but only acknowledged that marketing professionals are increasingly targeting children in public schools, Dodd and Miller plan to ask another agency for further studies. The National Institute for Child Health and Development could assess the actual impact of this commercialism on children, giving the legislators' proposals more weight. What's Privacy Got to Do with the ESEA?Miller's bill was attached to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in May, but whether it will remain in the final version to be voted on by Congress is doubtful, officials say. The bill, which Miller revamped after hearing opposition from educators, calls for schools to secure parental consent before allowing the collection of student information for commercial use. But Kids in the Know  the advocacy group to which The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) belongs  said even after the revisions, the proposed rule still was too extensive. (Heaping more responsibility on teachers and administrators could hinder student participation in some educational activities, Kids said. And why put the federal government in charge of matters that local districts can handle better?) Dodd remains eager to add some privacy legislation to a current education bill this year. But now, it seems unlikely that Congress will move at all this year on the $2.4 billion act that reauthorizes education funding, Kids in the Know spokesman Rob Graham said recently. And that would be the first time this funding will miss its deadline. Chalk it up to politics, Graham said. "The Senate was unable to break the logjam over gun-related amendments. The bill is no longer on the Senate floor." Until the new legislation is in place, he said, the government will continue to fund all education programs as it did last year. | |||||
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The Association of Educational Publishers | |||||
