By DAVID BOYLE
The state legislature is considering House Bill 57, a bill that raises the Base Student Allocation, restricts cell phone usage in schools, and tracks student graduates for 20 years following graduation. Here is the bill section on tracking students:
“The Department of Labor & Workforce Development shall (8) gather data on the progress of each high school graduating class in a district by collecting career, postsecondary education, and residency data on each student in the graduating class; the department shall gather the data required under this paragraph HB57 every five years for 20 years after the high school graduation date of each high school graduating class; the department shall publish a biennial report on the data gathered under this paragraph;”
Supposedly, the intent of tracking students until they are 38 years old is to determine if our K-12 education system is successful late in life. Are they employed? Are they on welfare? Are they elected officials? Are they employed by the government or private sector? Are they incarcerated? Are they still in Alaska? Are they lobbyists? Are they nonprofit CEOs?
How will they track these graduates? Will they implant chips in the students? Will they require the student graduates to inform the State of Alaska whenever they change jobs or move to another state?
This legislation would appear to fly in the face of the Alaska Constitution’s Right to Privacy clause. Alaska Constitution, Article I, section 22 says:
§ 1.22 – Right of Privacy
“The right of the people to privacy is recognized and shall not be infringed.”
Apparently, the Senate believes that Alaska’s Right to Privacy does not apply to high school graduates.
Sen. Shelley Hughes (R-Palmer) offered an amendment to change the student graduate tracking from 20 years to the more recent 3 years. That amendment was defeated 14-6.
Those who voted to track students for 20 years: Senators, Stevens, Giessel, Bjorkman, Claman, Dunbar, Gray-Jackson, Hoffman, Kawasaki, Kiehl, Merrick, Olson, Stedman, Tobin, and Wielechowski.
Sen. Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau) stated that three years alone would not give future legislators the needed information.
Sen. Robert Myers (R-North Pole) asked what do we do with the data we collect now. Do we do anything with the data we already have? He went on to say, “If a 38-year-old person is not doing well, I have to figure out if it’s actually the school that caused that”.
It’s a little late to determine a causal relationship after 38 years.
Sen. Matt Claman (D-Anchorage) tried to compare collecting 20 years of data of a high school graduate to 5 years of victimization data that is collected. He said that the collection of this student data would help show the legislature and K-12 system how well they are doing.
Sen. Mike Shower (R-Wasilla) supported the amendment and had serious concerns about protecting the collected data. He said there is no way we can protect the information we already have as has been shown by hacks to the state’s data. He said, “The more we get the more we cannot protect.” “The easiest way to protect it is to not collect it.”
There was really no mention of the Alaska Constitution Right to Privacy clause.
Maybe we should collect 20 years of data on legislators following their initial election. That way we may be able to determine the causal relationship of their votes.
Will we see high school graduates marching across the stage to get their diploma while being implanted with a chip?
David Boyle is an education writer for Must Read Alaska.
In Alaska? Not anymore, it seems.
Since the Education is doing so little right now, what makes the Legislature think that this law will make anything better. I can think of a lot of reasons why I would not want to be tracked for the next 20 years. I see this as a money grab by the unions and an invasion of privacy by the Legislature, the Unions and whoever has access to the information which in this era of AI is everyone who wants it.
It’s a “no” on tracking; even 3 years is none of your business. How about using something a little more relevant and less intrusive? I suggest you focus on test scores and graduation rates.
Thank you, David, for bringing this legislation to light.
Tracking students for 20 years will clearly show one thing: Most who go out for college educations never return to live and work. Alaska’s economy is far to narrow to lure them back.
You say: “Most who go out for college educations never return to live and work.”
I say: Prove it.
Just contact the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development and they will substantiate my assertion.
‘https://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/data-pages/alaska-census-and-population-unit-contacts
Don’t answer. Not required. Answer if you like. Why is this a frenzy?
“Those who voted to track students for 20 years: Senators, Stevens, Giessel, Bjorkman, Claman, Dunbar, Gray-Jackson, Hoffman, Kawasaki, Kiehl, Merrick, Olson, Stedman, Tobin, and Wielechowski.”
This tells me all I need to know.
If Mr. Boyle had a chip implanted that might raise his cognition substantially 😉
The GOP has consistently screamed for accountability; how much more accountability can you get than metadata on the longitudinal impacts of instruction?
Adam Smith’s invisible hand works, as he intimates, because of the absence of attenuation and abstraction, the presence of which require regulation. Boyle regularly opines that he wants a life free of societal obligation (a concept Locke rejected by the way) while accepting all the benefits of society. It doesn’t work that way.
Their are costs associated with any ‘liberty’, and a free public education, under assault from the likes of Anchorage Policy Forum and their secret funders and fellow travelers for being an horrific waste of money, should be the subject of longitudinal research loudly endorsed by these skeptics….
Unless, of course, the noise they make has nothing to do with assessing the value of a public education.
This is beyond ridiculous . I don’t see anyway it could be enforced or tracked without violating rights to privacy. Maybe send out questionnaires? That could be a lot of fun to fill out. Honor student who graduated first in their class might say “in jail”. What a wast of time. It would be better to track kids still in school to see if they are actually learning anything each year.
Longitudinal studies like this aggregate the data so that individual privacy is protected. Universities already track their graduates, but few public schools do. A handful of states do this, but they have much more money than Alaska does. I doubt that this will be part of the final education bill, as it will be too expensive for a state that is already pressed for money and staffing. Most states use data from the National Student Clearinghouse, which tracks students who go on to higher education. The Clearinghouse collects anonymized data on college outcomes, GPA, persistence, graduation, and level of academic achievement. The problem, of course, is that data cannot be collected for students who do not attend college.
It is nothing more then Invasion of privacy at all costs.You can put ANY title of reason “why”, but it is nothing more then an INVASION of personal invasion..Remember J6 when a bank USED invasion for all those who traveled to DC.. It’s nothing more then a way to CONTROLL people..AFTER graduation, it’s like treating them like they’re back in Kindergarden..Keeping track so they don’t get lost. If you need to track people, why don’t you track the people using their welfare for drugs/beer/liquor and any other “joyride” illegal stuff. But that is a “CRY” of invasion of personal activities, then why should we have to track these high school graduates.They GRADUATED LEGALLY.
Then you are also opposed to the Trump/Musk/DOGE plan where they are aggregating dozens of federal databases to build a master database on Americans with over 300 information points, including education, health, income, gambling winnings, and about 296 additional pieces of information about you. The Federal Privacy Act specifically prohibits this and the information is being compiled from more than 2 dozen agencies, where the information was specifically siloed to prevent such aggregation Clearly an enlightened person like yourself who cares strongly about privacy and civil protections must be abhorred by this effort and I suspect you are speaking out loudly against it.
More Stupid from the legislature.
It would seem that they are too bored with their lives and clearly don’t get out enough, so they spend time creeping around graduates. It’s shameful, really.
From a bird’s eye view, I see the battle of Good VS Evil playing out, both racing against time in hopes to gain as many followers as possible before the true end times.
There is a reason the military has made many underground bases. There is a reason the elite are so terribly frightened of “Climate Change”. They are afraid because they believe something unavoidable is coming.
Worry not, only the wicked shall be harvested and placed into where they belong. The People of Light shall be advanced to the next level of existece.
Make good with The Creator.
….preach