How are the Feds using private information on your children? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    We used to think conspiracy theorists were kooks. But in recent years we've seen too many examples of crazy stuff being done by our government. Here's just another one of them.

    Imagine a national database of school children that contains highly confidential information that parents may not even know has been collected on their children, much less having given their permission for the information to be collected nor does the parent have any control over how it will be used.

    During the Christmas holidays the New York Post published a story with examples just such as this that, unless it is stopped, has the potential of being a massive invasion of privacy of our nation's children and their parents' rights to control their children's business. Here's part of the article:

   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.

    Last April, the department proposed regulations that would allow it and other agencies to share a student's personal information with practically any government agency or even private company, as long as the disclosure could be said to support an evaluation of an "education program," broadly defined. That's how the CDC might end up with your daughter's health records or the Department of Labor with your son's test scores.

    And you'd have no right to object -- in fact, you'd probably never even know about the disclosure. Click here to read the story.

    Delma Blinson writes the "Teacher's Desk" column for our friend in the local publishing business: The Beaufort Observer. His concentration is in the area of his expertise - the education of our youth. He is a former teacher, principal, superintendent and university professor.