Parental Rights Bills We Support
Please add your Proponent comments to the public record.
Photo credit: scholastic.com
This is an action alert to lend your support to two bills introduced in this legislative session that address some important concerns regarding Nebraska education: LB 428 amd LB 31
Due to the universally acknowledged rights to student privacy and parental control, These two bills have bipartisan support.
We also support LB 140. Senator Sanders’ bill to require local school boards to adopt a policy regarding the use of cell phones in schools.
These bills are short and to the point, if you would like to click on the links and read them.
Hearings for all three of these bills will be held at the 1:30 p.m. Session on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at the Nebraska Capitol, room 1525. If you can attend and make a public comment, you should.
Whether or not you can attend, you should comment online regarding the bills you support, it is easy and takes very little time.
We anticipate the paid Education Lobby will be against these bills. It creates work and accountability for administrators. Not to be cynical, but in past legislative sessions it has been clear that the administrators, school board associations, and teacher’s unions have lobbied hard against anything that makes them work. Every attempt at Parental Rights has been opposed by them.
A large number of online comments in favor can make a difference. Be respectful, be brief, tell a personal story if you have one. Most of the comments won’t be read, but the number of Proponents vs. Opponents makes an impression.
Introduced by Senators Murman, Clements, Conrad, Ibach, Lippincott, and Lonowski
If the school administers a survey that asks students questions about personal information that is protected by federal law: medical or mental health information, information about personal sexuality, religion, politics, or any other subject deemed sensitive by the local school board, the parents must be given an opportunity to opt-out.
At least 30 days before the survey, parents must be notified of the types of questions on the survey, how the information will be used, who will have access, and how the results will be reported. Parents will have the right to review the survey upon request and exempt their student from participating.
“No survey requesting sexual information of a student shall be administered to any student in kindergarten through sixth grade.”
Why we support LB 428:
Nebraska Education Coalition has been asking for this for a long time. There is a federal law called PPRA which is very similar to this bill. The law applies to any entity receiving money from the U.S. Dept. of Education, i.e. the schools. The privacy law has been circumvented when the schools either receive grants from, or contract with, third parties to conduct the surveys. There are currently no federal privacy laws for students (or faculty) that limit those third party vendors from using student data to their own purposes, or selling it.
Introduced by Senator Conrad
“A BILL FOR AN ACT relating to schools; to state legislative findings; to require the State Board of Education to develop a model policy relating to the use of student surveillance, monitoring, and tracking technology by school districts as prescribed; and to require each school board to adopt a policy consistent with the model policy.”
“Parents have a well-established and fundamental right to control their children's education. Students have a well-established and fundamental right to privacy from unwarranted government surveillance. Taxpayers have a well-established right to ensure public entities are good stewards of public funds and a well-established right to transparency for governmental operations and expenditures.”
“The intersection of government and technology companies utilizing tools of mass surveillance raises concerns regarding civil rights and civil liberties; Numerous public schools in Nebraska have instituted various tracking systems that surveil and monitor students. The tracking systems include, but are not limited to, digital hall passes, anti-vaping devices, fingerprints swipes, cameras, and electronic surveys; Tools of mass surveillance are being purchased and utilized with taxpayer funds through contracts with private companies;”
Why we support LB 31.
First of all, it codifies the fact that parents have the fundamental right to control their child’s education. This may be the first time that statement appears in Nebraska law.
The obvious external surveillances, such as hall pass tracking systems, are conspicuous and easy to address. The bigger issue is the internal tracking.
Schools are currently all-in with online curriculum. Chromebooks assigned to students have a unique IP address and therefore every key stroke the student makes on that device can be tracked. The data is being tracked, and likely sold, by the online curriculum companies, the online Social Emotional Learning companies, and possibly the operating system providers.
If you sync your Chromebook to your phone, that data may also be trackable.
More recently, schools have been contracting with online mental health providers. The personal angst of students is admittedly collected by those providers, and they are using artificial intelligence to “customize” their interaction with your student.
Our opinion is that no child is safe from exploitation unless they are using books and paper.
The schools have spent millions of your tax dollars on Ed Tech and they don’t want to admit it is a boondoggle. That is why we believe they will fight this.
Please make your opinions known as soon as possible with your online comments at nebraskalegislature.gov. Your voice is important. Comments must be made by the night of Feb. 3 to be counted. Don’t delay.
The author, Sue Greenwald M.D. is a co-founder of Nebraska Education Coalition