Grading the GOP’s Latest Education Bill: Needs Improvement (on Data Privacy)

The House Education and Workforce Committee completed their mark-up last week of HR 4508, which they have named the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act. Here is an update on the data privacy implications of this bill. The good news is that the ban on a student unit-record system is still in place. The previously proposed College Transparency Act would have allowed non-consensual tracking of personally identifiable information from college through the workforce by monitoring individual data from the colleges and universities, the IRS, and the military. (See also here and here for more details.) Committee

Guess What? Congress Wants to Collect Even More Sensitive Student Data

Amidst of the ongoing battle against the surveillance state that we have chronicled with the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (FEPA), the College Transparency Act (CTA), and the regulatory gutting of the family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), there is yet another data bill that is now rearing its head. Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.) have reintroduced The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act. Like the CTA, in its past iterations this bill has removed the prohibition on the student unit-record system, which would allow the tracking of individual students throughout