Parents and privacy experts are blasting a new national database that compiles personal student information for educational companies that contract with public schools.Read more here and watch the news video.
New York State officials, working with the city, have already uploaded students' names, addresses, test scores, learning disabilities, attendance and disciplinary records into the inBloom database, according to the Daily News.
What is inBloom? From the Daily News:
InBloom, a 3-month-old database, is funded primarily by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. built the infrastructure for the new electronic portal.
The state spent $50 million in federal grants to partner with inBloom and finalized its agreement in October to share data with the fledgling company.
The new service will not cost the city any money at first, though inBloom officials said they will probably start to charge fees in 2015.
Names, attendance records, disciplinary histories, addresses, test scores and more are delivered to the state. The state contracts with inBloom, a database that warehouses that information. InBloom then contracts with private companies selling educational products and services that can access the information.
Wouldn't "contracting with private companies selling educational products and services" that access students' personal information be considered selling student information without parental permission or knowledge? Why is this being funded partially by federal grants so that the state can partner with inBloom and share student information with the company?
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