NYS Court Judgment Hurts Student Privacy and Parental Rights

It was reported yesterday that NYS Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin ruled that the State Education Department (SED) can release and transfer private student data to inBloom, Inc. where data will be stored in a cloud database. According to a news article by Jon Campbell, "Judge Breslin's decision should establish once and for all that Commissioner King is properly safeguarding student data..."    

Does anyone believe that the NYS Commissioner of Education is able to "properly safeguard student data"? In 2013, the following were among those breached by hackers:

• The New York Times
• Facebook
• Department of Homeland Security
• NSA
• Living Social
• Washington State Administrative Offices of the Courts
• Target

Will the inBloom, Inc. database somehow be more secure than that of the entities noted above? 

Last week The Washington Post contained an article about how James Meredith had penned an Education Bill of Rights. One of the rights he included was that students had a right to transparency by their schools. "A school where records of every dollar of taxpayer money spent are available for public inspection; where personally identifiable student information is not shared with outside parties without express parental consent; where parents and teachers are involved in school management and policy; and where core public school functions are not sold off to for-profit operators." 

Wouldn't it be nice to give back to parents their central role in controlling the collection, transfer, and sharing of private information about their children? The bureaucracy has swept away too many parental rights.


To read Judge Breslin's decision, go to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/206059776/InBloom-Decision-by-Judge-Breslin