Texas Schools Using Electronic Chips To Track Students; Parents In Uproar 540
An anonymous reader writes "Two Schools in San Antonio are using electronic chips to help administrators count and track students' whereabouts. Students at Anson Jones Middle School and John Jay High School are now required to wear ID cards using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology embedded with electronic chips in an effort to daily attendance records. The article said the Northside Independent School District receives about $30 per day in state funding for each student reporting."
Microwaves are fun. (Score:5, Insightful)
Just saying.
Story is unbelievable. (Score:5, Insightful)
Simpler, more permanent (Score:4, Insightful)
Hey, why not just embed the RFID tags in them subdermally, in their ear, like cattle? There must be a fair bit of expertise for that sort of thing in Texas.
In other news, the last kid in John Jay High School to figure out they could just leave their ID card in their locker and stay in bed all day was mercilessly mocked and bullied by his peers.
Re:Do what with daily records? (Score:5, Insightful)
It probably means that the teachers haven't a clue who their charges are and that the writer of the above passed through the system despite not attending.
Re:Do what with daily records? (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess public education has failed us then. Bad attendance costs schools, money. Bad education, Meehhh!
Somewhere... (Score:5, Insightful)
Somewhere in this school there's an Honor Roll student with a couple of dozen ID tags hanging around his neck and a wallet full of cash...
Consumer vs Product (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microwaves are fun. (Score:2, Insightful)
Jimmy, come in, we haven't seen you on our records lately, why yes Mr Tegan did say you were in his 5th form class, but we don't see you. We'll have to refer you to the police regarding truancy. Now I don't like this, but if you just wore this new ID badge, we don't need to get the police involved..."
Reasonable? (Score:5, Insightful)
This doesn't seem unreasonable does it? When the kids are at school, the staff are in loco parentis, and so keeping tabs on the little bastards doesn't sound crazy. After all if one of them goes AWOL and turns up in a suitcase, the school's likely to be sued.
Of course if it's being used for data collection for behavioural profiling or resale, that's another matter, but if it's just for "this kid was here earlier but didn't answer roll call, where the hell is he?" or "it's recess and we need to get a message to this kid, where the hell is he?" that seems fine.
Re:Generating more irrelevant data (Score:5, Insightful)
For the schools it is irrelevant whether students learn valuable skills. Schools are graded on test scores and attendance. The former is improved by teaching the test. The latter is improved by tracking. Funding is determined by those two metrics, so: profit!
Re:When a student goes missing ... (Score:2, Insightful)
There's more than one person that's supposed to be keeping track of those 1200 students.
I'd reckon probably about 450 people. (Class size of 30, 50 misc people, administrators, campus watch people, etc).
Besides. You stick all those 1200 people in a building, with maybe a dozen entrances/exits, so you don't need to watch each of them individually all the time.
Re:When a student goes missing ... (Score:5, Insightful)
More like Little Brother.... (Score:0, Insightful)
Did anyone elsed read this and immediately think of Little Brother by Corey Doctorow?
Re:When a student goes missing ... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm sure a creepy school employee would love to know exactly when they can find your kids all alone. I don't understand why you don't have a problem with your kids being tracked, when you wouldn't like the same system for yourself. Also, if a parent is so worried about their children going missing then they can have their kid wear a tracking device that will track them off school grounds and actually be useful for finding them.
how hard (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Generating more irrelevant data (Score:5, Insightful)
Your point still stands that they are not concerning themselves with education, but the reason isn't a love of metrics. It is a love of money.
Re:Consumer vs Product (Score:5, Insightful)
Please get both of those words out of the discussion. They are neither the consumer or the product. Education is not a product to be consumed.
They are students! They are there to learn, to be curious, to ask questions, make mistakes, and get messy.
Re:Somewhere... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, if it's done correctly, that would be flagged extremely quickly - a dozen kids constantly going through the same doors at the exact same time is a bit suspicious.
Especially when it's the single occupancy toilet.
Re:Familiar... (Score:5, Insightful)
This was the most important line in the article:
"The article said the Northside Independent School District receives about $30 per day in state funding for each student reporting."
This is the only reason anything gets done at a public school EVER.
Re:When a student goes missing ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microwaves are fun. (Score:5, Insightful)
Jimmy shows Mr. Tegan his ID. Tegan gets deeply confused. when system says Jimmy isn't there. Jimmy says BOO and Tegan drops dead of fright.
More likely, Jimmy is issued a new ID, and so are a growing number of other students week after week until the school system decides the system is too expensive.
Re:Simpler, more permanent (Score:5, Insightful)
I Hate This Attitude (Score:5, Insightful)
I do not know why so many refer to government as if it is this independent god-like entity running around and maniacally laughing as it forces people to do things against their will.
The government *is* the parents. I went to public high school, and went to a district that mandated school uniforms. This wasn't big government forcing it on me; it was my parents' contemporaries. I remember my parents asking at meetings why we needed uniforms (took out individuality, and was expensive!), but many other parents -- not the government -- responded they liked how clean everyone looked, and it kept gang paraphenalia out of schools. Hell, I knew *students* that claimed to enjoy having uniforms because they did not like having to think about what to wear every day.
My point is, do not blame government -- blame the parents. The parents are the ones pushing the standards, and government officials are trying their best (often times anyway) to appease what they think is the majority opinion. My school district holds votes on certain school policies, and it was what parents wanted.
If you are upset about rejecting authority, you should ask why so many parents are so authoritarian toward their own and other children. It is apparently what they want. Personally, I feel this is a phase because of fear of the future in the current economic and foreign policy climate. The youth are not near as accepting as you think. Growing up in this era has given them much different attitudes than their authoritarian parents. They are biding their time until they know for sure how to go about changing it. I would be a little more optimistic.
Re:Story is unbelievable. (Score:1, Insightful)
In Texas they throw a fit if you try to cut the budget for the football program or try to teach evolution.
Strange. I went to Texas schools for 13 years and learned evolution in science class. Although, my daughter goes to a Baptist private school in Texas. They teach evolution as well.
Re:Microwaves are fun. (Score:2, Insightful)
Or makes the student's parents pay for it when it breaks, like they do with textbooks.
Re:I hope (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope there is one of those Pinko-Liberal-Commie-Democrat-Basterds teachers on the faculty making the kids read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.
And who says English Lit is worthless.
When I was young, I thought Fahrenheit 451 was about suppressing books because government was authoritarian.
I read it more recently and realized it was because the people had democratically decided that books were unhealthy and interfered with watching Dancing with the Stars.
Re:I approve it. (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish people like you would leave the country.. or at least go live in a socialist country for awhile and see if you like that worthless sardine can lifestyle.
1. Tracking performance negates the need to track attendance.
2. It's just as likely that repressive, overcontrolling environments with extremely passive-aggressive authority structures are what CAUSE school shootings. The amount of pressure in schools grows every day, and most of it is artificially imposed.
3. Over litigiousness is the root problem here. It affects more than just schools. Maybe the answer is for society in general to roll this back and force people to fucking deal with the realities of life instead of constantly searching for a scapegoat, even at the expense of rational cause-effect and reasonable recompense.
4. Logical progression doesn't justify anything. It's a predictor. This is the same shitty argument used in law concerning 'precedent.' It's a fallacy when used to justify more of the same kind of action. It's a form of circular reasoning.
5. People aren't necessarily ignorant. They're just not machines meant to fit the cogs of your 'Great Society.'
6. define 'bad things' please. This is the 'if you've got nothing to hide' argument. The problem isn't whether people do 'bad things', it's what authority deems 'bad' and how unchecked they are in enforcing whims. During my years in the public system, faculty abused their privileges and power all the time. why would someone pay attention and abuse? BECAUSE THEY CAN! It's an axiomatic component of human nature I guess: unchecked power corrupts. The last thing I'd want is to give this mindset even more control over my location or any personal data. If the goal is to educate, then track performance, and don't worry quite so much about attendance. Of course, if the goal is to get kids used to this kind of shithole society, then by all means...
7. yeah I know. People need to fucking realize that with life, shit happens, and sometimes there's no one person to blame. Unfortunately, it seems like you're the one following the 'zomg terrorist' bandwagon, or at least using the word to label people you don't agree with so you don't have to listen to them. Since most people who side with tyrannical authority are often extremely timid and insecure, I wonder if that's not the case with you.
A reason to be vigallent.... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's why it *is* important for parents of today...to be against this type of tracking....if kids today think this is normal...well, it then becomes the norm.
Re:Simpler, more permanent (Score:5, Insightful)
Because we need a metric that can be measured with a daily KPI to show progress. This is what happens when you expect to apply "business rules" other places on society not based on monetary results.
Re:Story is unbelievable. (Score:5, Insightful)
Note: I don't go to church because I don't like organized religion. It's not to my liking... so I don't participate. Simple.
See, that's where you're wrong. You participate. I participate. Every American taxpayer is forced to participate in organized religion, as long as things like this [arstechnica.com] are considered acceptable. Civilization itself is at stake, or soon will be, and the option to "live and let live" has been taken away from us.
Religion fucks up everything, starting with the government. They evidently don't teach history in public schools anymore, or people wouldn't have forgotten that.