School Board Member Advises "Opt Out"

September 28, 2015

Dear Parents & Citizens of Rich County School District 5,

Please consider opting your children out of SAGE testing.  You have the right to do so with no negative consequence to your children from any Local Education Authority (LEA) or, in other words, local schools in Utah.  Jennifer and I have elected to do so because of our concern for our children’s future and safety.  Schools are required to gather data on children and families.  This data is stored on a longitudinal database system.  This system was created by the state with federal grant money to meet certain specifications.  You should learn more about this here.  https://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/schools-are-sharing-private-information-via-slds-and-p-20-statefederal-systems/  (Some of the contacts listed in the article have changed, but the information is the same.)

 When I was running for election last year, I was very open about my concerns related to federal intrusion into our local education and the dangers that intrusion brings.  I have now been on the school board for 9 months and been through enough training from Utah State Office of Education (USOE) and Utah School Boards Association (USBA) to validate my concerns.

Recently, we have heard about data breaches in diverse places.  If we don’t want crooks and thieves or anybody else to have access to our children’s data, perhaps we better not give the data in the first place. 

A hacker stealing our children’s data is frightening, but even more frightening is the thought of our own government having that kind of data about our children and families.  We should be very careful here.  The government should be our last defense and protector, so if this kind of invasion of privacy by the government is allowed, who will we go to for redress of grievances?

I received an email recently from USOE which confirms my concern about data safety.  Somehow, two news organizations were sent statewide testing results before the results were released to the Local Education Authorities (LEA).  While this data is of the aggregate type (I hope), it shows how easily things can get muddled/intercepted/hacked.

Oh, don’t forget, American Institute of Research (AIR) which created SAGE has all your data and they don’t have to ask for permission.  You should know who and what kind of company holds your family data.  http://www.air.org/about-us, think about who they say they are—behavioral testing.   

I believe in limited government and local education.  God bless the USA.

Your friend and neighbor,

Bryce Huefner

School Board Member District 5, Rich County School District

CC:     Rich County School Board Members

Rich County School District Administrators