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U.S. Government Wants Detailed College Data
Doofus writes "Apparently aggregate data are no longer enough for the trusty US Dept. of Education, as we can read in this opinion piece Alma Mater as Big Brother in today's Washington Post. As the author, a college president tells us, the governement would require schools "to report all their students' Social Security numbers and other information about each individual -- including credits earned, degree plan, race and ethnicity, and grants and loans received -- to a national databank". And the author counters by pointing out the obvious but real threat of such aggregation: "The creation of a gigantic database containing educational records and other personal data on millions would be a costly and troubling assault on privacy. This information could all too easily be shared with other government agencies or even with the private sector.""
Cause the way things are going, it's damn sure that it's dead and someone needs to be saying the prayers.
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
Its bad enough reading about all these idetity thefts taking place, but when you find out its because someone decided to create this wonderful new database of only info that an identity theif could use.. does anyone else think this is a dumb idea?
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
Won't somebody think of the children!
Nice to see that they're still churning out complete screw-up policies like this. Oh wait, no it's not. Damn. It really saddens me how society seems to be going right down the drain, and the people who are supposed to be preventing this are usually the ones that end up causing it. This situation is a perfect example of why I really dislike the concept of politicians. Lets see, a group of people who desperately want lots of personal power. Uh, hello? Alarm bells ringing!
Santa's suicide mission go!
...no male who ever got a nickle in loans or scholarships has avoided being enrolled in this database from the get-go and which database is that? The selective service of course.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
The people who are recommending this are not interested in your privacy. I recall a time when Republicans stood for a less intrusive government, or they did until they figured it served their interests to do otherwise. I switched my party affiliation from Republican to Democrat this year. Even Newt Gingrich doesn't understand what happened to the GOP. If it weren't for the fact that all the newspapers (except NYT) have rolled over in the face of the constant Bush terror propaganda, this kind of thing would be big news. Scary as fuckin hell.
"Researchers at the Education Department say this mammoth project would give them better information on graduation rates and what students pay for college."
The Deparment of Education has no problem with taking money out of tax refunds when students have outstanding loans. Obviously, the IRS and Dept of Education are at least acquaintances. After, they're both part of the same government.
"Should an institution refuse, the government could take away federal grants, loans and work-study funds from every student at the college, a penalty that would fall on students in need while leaving more affluent students unaffected."
That's almost like freezing someone's bank account.
The Department of Education already collects more information about students than you even imagine.
First of all is the FAFSA. This has become the defacto student financial aid applications. Many institutions have their own financial aid applications but to receive any federal financial aid the person must fill out the FAFSA. All the data on the FAFSA is electronically transfered to the student's institution.
Since federal financial aid can be administered by private banks as well as the government and this aid goes to millions of students in thousands of schools it is an enormaous exercise to track the data. Say hello to the National Student Clearinghouse. Not every school participaces in the NSCH but most of them do because everybody else does. From the NSCH, institutions can BUY your data.
Each year ALL institutions that participate in federal financial aid programs, which is over 90% of them, must respond to the NCES IPEDS data collection. IPEDS is a complete, albeit aggregate, data collection tool but it drills down to such detail that for a small to medium sized instituion it's not difficult to get some good stuff.
Many states have combined student data repositories that the state higher education committe can regularly utilize.
This is just the start. Colleges regularly participate in data exchanges with other institutions. For those who want to scream FERPA right now, remember there is a big loophole called "legitimate academic interest" that allows the institution to use whatever data they so choose.
There is more personalized data about each and every student floating around hundreds and even thousands of institutions that nobody has any control over any of it.
The proposed list of variables the the department of education wants to collect per student can be seen on page 74 of the IPEDS SURS Feasability study.
I work in an Institutional Research office in a major university what NCES is proposing in nothing compared to what is already available.
...is if they collected this information, but didn't cross reference it between fields. Let them have my SSN, my majors, etc... but don't let them tie them all together in one big identifying lump.
but governments cracking down on academia sounds stangely familiar to me.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
How can schools report every students SSN when the colleges are required, by law, not to ask for SSN? Yes, yes, I know that they all DO ask for it, but it seems like this is going from ignorance of the law to intentionally going against it.
On a note of that, I've been told that the social security act banned certain uses of the SSN as ID. Is that really really true? If so, where does it say that? I would love to actually take a university to court and make them change. Why hasn't anyone done this?
Sorry sir we cannot provide this mortgage because you do not have the required education requirements that our lender has approved.
Worse is that it would be legal.
So a person with a PHD in Astrophysics would get a 5% credit card and someone with just a BA in the same field would get 15%.
I have to agree with you, since they aren't mentioned specifically in the constitution education is an enumerated right and belongs as a state right.
You're not too smart, are you? Don't answer, it was a rhetorical question.
Its been a few years though.. ,Social security numbers are collected on forms iirc probably to check your not trying to claim benefits at the same time as studying and reciving your grant or loan.
This is how it functions in the UK , All the universitys are state owned and funded to a large degree.
They collect records to keep track and allow sharing between universitys
To me this sounds like a lot of paranoia as im sure its how it works in the rest of the world.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
you ripped the words right out of my mouth (or, well, Pat Buchanan's mouth). Eventually, all democracies commit suicide.
'A lie if repeated often enough, becomes the truth.' - Goebbels
Big Brother empties the pockets of working folk and kindly pays on their behalf for your education, and then you go whining when he expects favours in return?
You know, in the USA unlike in some socialist pestholes, there exist a few genuine private universities. They don't take handouts, so they don't have to take shit from the feds. You fancy being treated like a customer, not like the product? You know what they say: you get what you pay for.
They'll probably store it on a laptop.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
Ability to pay back the loan is what credit institutions look for, and while there is a strong corelation between income and education, no lender is going to turn down a potentially profitable customer on such an arbitrary basis. Nor would they reduce the profits from credit cards simply due to the holder's qualifications, since highly educated people are prepared to pay the existing rates; where's the advantage?
"Worse is that it would be legal."
Doubtful; it would probably fall into some category of discrimination. But even if it was legal, it would be financially stupid.
Blank until
Bring out your tin hats people.
It's already out there to some degree. When I went to get a car loan, I got a "special deal" from the finance company because I had a degree. As near as I could tell from the paperwork, they didn't care so much what your degree was in or the earning power associated with it. But they did verify the degree, and I got a better rate on the loan for it.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
No. So that the US Armed Forces can recruit (or, if you want to be even more cynical, draft) who they please.
Military recruiting is an an all-time low despite rather large bonuses for signing up, re-enlistment, and so on. If Iraq doesn't wrap up soon, the military will simply run out of people who want to be in the military.
Rumsfield keeps telling us how they prefer a volunteer military, but if it comes down to "needing a soldier for that gun", they'll put anyone there.
Please help metamoderate.
What this proposal actually does is play the now classic "purse string game." The Federal government lacks the authority to require local schools to collect & submit this data. Instead, they condition federal money on it.
If, of course, we were to simply keep those education dollars in-state in the first place, this wouldn't even come up. The solution is simple, stop letting D.C. have so much of your money.
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
Agreed. I've read A1S8 of the Constitution and cannot find authority for the Congress to legislate on educational matters nor create an executive department to administer same.
How'd you get modded Troll for that?
Constitutionally Correct
Assault on privacy? Any idiot who has ever worked for any university knows how many reports are sent to state and federal government already... The only difference will be that any huge database with all this information will likely hold LESS information about each student than the current reports that are sent out do. I myself have prepared state database reports which hold 90+ pieces of information about every student who got any need-based financial aid... This is called sensationalism and is no change from the way things are already being done.
Perhaps it is time to stop Federalism and go back to the Articles of Confederation. After all, isn't this a classic case of abnegation of the Fifth Amendment?
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
It is the same thing with the Real ID Act of 2005 legislation (HR418) by Sensenbrenner. Section 203 requires that states must participate in the Driver License Agreement (DLA). Also states will be required to keep information on personal information like social security numbers, addresses, and driving record items such as license suspensions, points (both redundant since it is done already) and all other violations (moving, non-moving/equipment, parking) and share them with ofhter jurisdictions. In addition, it would require states to punish their drivers for out of state and out of country infractions (Canada & Mexico so far).
Not known to many people is the data will be shared with Canada and Mexico as a start. Reference DLA at the AAMVA. Look on page 4, item 11 defining jurisdiction.The sharing of personal info like SS#'s would be a great bonanza for foreigners and US people alike to abuse such as identity theft.
The Senate so far has refused to pass the legislation so it was attached to the emergency funding for Iraq War and Tsunami Relief (HR1268) since it is a must pass legislation. The House will attempt to pigeon hole the Senate to pass this contrary to their reseversations for this piece of draconian legislation. It will come up for discussion in the second week of April when the Congress reconvenes from their Easter break.
The time is now to speak against this. Contact Congress
Don't give them your ssn or anything else they don't legitimately need.
Tell your HS not to include your SSN w/your transcript or any other documents they send out.
G'luck with college. Sleep, Party, Study.
Choose two.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
When I went to get a car loan, I got a "special deal" from the finance company because I had a degree. As near as I could tell from the paperwork, they didn't care so much what your degree was in or the earning power associated with it.
I wonder if an AAS in General Studies would count.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
I can verify that an Associates was all it took, the didn't care about a Bachelors or better.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein