Privacy Bills in the Senate, a First Look: Evie Hudak Just Needs to Go Away at This Point

by Eileen | 2:44 pm, January 29, 2013

WHAT: SB 13-071, Mandating unique identifiers for GED seekers WHO: Sen. Evie Hudak (D-19) and Rep. Rhonda Fields (D-42) WHY: Federal education dollars Evie Hudak is listed on the legislative website as an ‘educator’ – and, if I could get past the fear that she might unhinge her jaw and swallow me whole, I’d ask [...]

Privacy Bills in the Senate, a First Look: Andy Kerr Wants to Send Student Data to State Colleges without Actually, you know, Asking the Students

by Eileen | 2:25 pm, January 28, 2013

WHAT: SB 13-053, Facilitating the transfer of student data from secondary to postsecondary systems WHO: Sen. Andy Kerr (D-22) and Rep. Millie Hamner (D-61) WHY: It sure as hell ain’t for the kids. This is all about transferring the oodles and oodles of data that the public school system gathers on kids to the state [...]

Jeffco School Board’s Paula Noonan Drives Into Unwelcome Spotlight… Again

by Ben | 10:07 pm, January 21, 2013

Three of the five Board seats for Colorado’s largest school district are up for grabs in 2013. One of them is just inviting a challenge. Jeffco school board director Paula Noonan made local headlines for displaying a serious bout of bad judgment: Jeffco school board member Paula Noonan was arrested during a traffic stop Jan. [...]

PERA – It’s All For The Kids

by Joshua Sharf | 5:18 pm, January 20, 2013

Not all school spending is for the kids.  A lot of it is for the teachers, at the expense of the kids.  Over the last five years, even as school districts and teachers unions complain that per-student spending has been “slashed,” “cut to the bone,” or “eviscerated,” per-student spending on the PERA School Division has [...]

RFID Monitoring of Students Stands, For Now

by Eileen | 7:03 pm, January 18, 2013

I wrote recently about Andrea Hernandez and her attempt to strike down RFID tracking of public school students on religious freedom grounds.  She lost her initial case and the 5th Circuit declined to give her a preliminary injunction, upholding the original judge’s deadline of January 18th for Miss Hernandez to either wear the ID tag [...]

Boys Punished for Finger Guns

by Randall Smith | 11:38 pm, January 16, 2013

The zero tolerance attitude we’re seeing at schools is producing laughable results.

Controversy at a Talbot County school after two six-year-old boys were suspended while playing cops and robbers during recess and using their fingers to make an ima…

Could a Bill to Increase Attendance Lead to Tracking Students?

by Eileen | 4:54 am, January 14, 2013

Last week, I wrote about a Texas case concerning the state’s right to force a student to wear an RFID-chip on school grounds and submit to monitoring.  The initial decision went against the student, who based her case on violation of religious freedom rather than violation of privacy, but the appeal is already underway. Treating [...]

Pink Floyd was Right on Student Privacy: It’s the Damn Teachers Who Need to Back Off

by Eileen | 8:45 am, January 10, 2013

After writing yesterday on Andrea Hernandez’s disappointing loss in the first round of a fight to not be surveiled by her school district, I thought I’d share a link or two and some accompanying thoughts. What Miss Hernandez has been asked to submit to is, oh, woe, neither the only nor the worst incursion against [...]

Ihre Papiere or GTFO: Micro-tracking students in Texas survives legal challenge

by Eileen | 5:18 pm, January 9, 2013

Some of you are perhaps aware of a case in San Antonio, Texas where a student, a minor at a public school, refused to wear an ID tag embedded with an RFID chip.  With her parents’ support, she sued, taking the interesting legal angle that such a requirement violated her religious freedom.  Specifically, Andrea Hernandez [...]

CU Buffs Football: grade points vs. extra points

by Brian T. Schwartz | 9:43 pm, December 20, 2012

This originally appeared in the Boulder Daily Camera on December 1, 2012. Former Buffs football coach Jon Embree has claimed some credit for his players’ improved GPAs:  ”You had the highest GPA the last three semesters that this school has ever had in the football program,” he said.  If Embree is to blame for CU [...]

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