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HB 1011: Require Schools to Send Student Names and Addresses to Vo-Techs

In the "We Don't Do That Already?" Department, the Legislative Planning Committee offers House Bill 1011, a bill to help our technical schools promote themselves the same way our public universities do.

Since 2002, state law has required South Dakota school districts to provide lists of the names and mailing addresses of their students in grades 7 through 12 to the Board of Regents. The Regents then use that information "inform the parents and guardians of any such student in any public middle school and high school about the courses needed to prepare for postsecondary-level work and about the benefits of such preparation."

Somebody must have noticed that the vo-techs don't get that valuable mailing list of their primary market. Somebody must have also noticed that granting that favor to our universities doesn't fit with Governor Dennis Daugaard's support for vo-tech education.

Thus, HB 1011 thus directs the school districts to CC those mailing lists to the Secretary of Education, who is to forward those lists to Southeast, Lake Area, Mitchell, and Western Dakota, who are then to use that information the same way the Regents do.

Just as I can see some folks surprised we don't already do that, I can imagine some of my conservative friends raising an eyebrow and asking why we're letting the schools hand out this information to anyone, Regental or otherwise. The law already removes from the distribution list any child whose parents have opted out of directory information sharing. But I'm counting on the folks alarmed by data collection provisions of Common Core to grab HB 1011, hoghouse it, and ban the distribution of student information to anyone!

11 Comments

  1. grudznick 2013.12.29

    I thought you were in favor of education, Mr. H. How can these children make decisions about their futures if the options are able to contact them?

    Oh, I know. You think that the good teachers (not the bad ones) at their schools will give them everything they need to know. I say BAH on that, and let the colleges have names and market. I, for one, do not trust the teachers to tell my great grandkids what schools they should go to.

  2. Cranky Old Dude 2013.12.29

    Used was we had various "career days" and other events at which reps from sundry colleges, tech schools and the military used to show up and harangue the juniors and seniors.

    I guess my feeling is that if you don't have enough interest in your future to find out what your options are, you probably aren't college material anyway!

  3. owen reitzel 2013.12.29

    what's the definition of a good and bad teacher grud?

  4. Jackilope 2013.12.29

    Grudznick: since when do teachers tell their students where to go to school? As stated by Cranky Old Dude, the junior year students (at least around here) go to career day events. School counselors can counsel, but no one tells a kid where he or she should go. Pointing out the strong schools, aptitude inventories, all of that, sure -- but ultimately it is the student and parent that decide.

  5. grudznick 2013.12.29

    HB 1.0.1.1 is the new 1.2.3.4

    Mark my words. People will become enraged.

  6. grudznick 2013.12.29

    I am told it is only a coincidence that this 1011 bill looks like a binary number and that binary number which is some math over my head people have tried to explain to me actually converts to 11. So having had some math myself, I can infer that if one takes a binary number like 1011 and subtracts one thousand, one gets the real normal human number.

    1011 - 1000 = 11. 1.0.1.1 is binary for 11 in real numbers. I suspect the LRC planned this whole numbering scheme as part of the vast conspiracy of this common core demon horde issue that will no doubt dominate the dark parts of libby minds.

  7. Nick Nemec 2013.12.29

    Grudz, have any black helicopters been spotted in your neighborhood?

  8. Roger Cornelius 2013.12.29

    Nick,
    No black helicopters, but probably a drone or two.

  9. Lanny V Stricherz 2013.12.30

    Most people are unaware, that the No Child Left Behind Act, requires the schools to give their Juniors list to all military recruiters. The only way, they don't get the child's name is if the parents sign a waiver to stop their child's name on the list.

  10. Larry 2013.12.30

    If the state wants to have better enrollment numbers, up the amount they give to education. That way tuition would not be out of reach for most students.

Comments are closed.