July 27, 2005
Watch Your Privacy!
The Minnesota Legislature has finished its work for 2005, and homeschoolers need to brace themselves for an upcoming onslaught of advertising aimed at trying to entice them into government cyberschool programs. The state has budgeted for a 35% increase in the enrollment of these public school at home programs over the next school year, and expects a 350% increase over four years. When public schools want to cash in on public money, they tend to start churning out direct mail targeting homeschoolers. But Minnesota's new privacy laws are intended to make that more difficult.
If you receive mail urging you to consider enrolling your child in a government online academy, please find out how the school district got your name. HSLDA has no objections to school districts that invite every single public school student to start learning at home, but we object to districts that single out the families that are currently educating their own children in their own homes at their own expense. By taking steps to protect your privacy, you will be helping the entire homeschool community defend itself from profit-seeking public school officials.
If your district is using a targeted mailing list of homeschoolers, please let us know. HSLDA has worked hard over the past several years to make this extremely difficult. By working together, we can protect the privacy of your family and others in Minnesota.
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