Tamp down on government data collection overreach

The Office of Public Instruction currently collects nearly 200 points of information for school accreditation, funding and assessing the quality of programming and student well-being. This data, which includes student data, is protected by federal and state privacy laws and our state constitution.  

During the 2023 legislative session HB 949, Generally revise education laws related to data governance, by Rep. Dave Bedey, was passed. This bill proposed to create “a strong and transparent education and workforce data governing board with authority over the linkage of education and workforce data.” But in reality, this amounts to veiled cradle-to-grave data collection on Montana citizens, especially our children. 

The Education and Workforce Data Governing Board meeting on Dec. 9 suggested that the state government should collect more student information than our state and federal laws currently require.