A former Illinois Republican Party representative filed a legal issue on Thursday, requesting that the Education Department look into some Western schools for allegedly sharing student data with outside parties to support left-wing get-out-the-vote initiatives on college campuses.
The complaint was brought on by Republican Desi Anderson, who unsuccessfully ran for state house in the 2024 election, and it claims that numerous universities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin unlawfully violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ( FERPA ) by using” students ‘ FERPA-protected data” to plan and implement student voter registration drives (VRD ) and student get-out-the-vote campaigns ( GOTV ) using” students ‘ FERPA-protected data” to
The Department of Education states that FERPA “allows kids the right to have access to their son’s educational information, the right to request that the information be amended, and the right to include some power over the reporting of personally identifiable information from the educational information.” When a student “enters a postgraduate organization at any age,” like rights are transferred to the pupil.
A person’s name, address, and birthdate are among the details protected by the federal statute, according to the organization.
The institutions named in Anderson’s objection are participants in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
The ALL IN program is a task of Civic Nation, a volunteer led by Valerie Jarrett, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, as The Federalist originally reported. Although being promoted as a “nonpartisan” business, the business has produced communist rants about commonsense election rules like voter ID needs and is rife with Democrat supporters.
Election dignity experts have expressed problems in recent years that GOTV initiatives like the ALL IN action could be used to increase voter participation on university campuses among good Democrats. For instance, during the 2022 midterms, young voters ( 18 to 29 ) voted for Democratic candidates by a wide margin, nearly 2-to-1. However, Donald Trump drastically reduced that percentage in the election of 2024.
Colleges that sign up for ALL IN “also sign up for the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement ( NSLVE ) at Tufts University,” according to InfluneceWatch, which has data from 2012 on campus voter registration and turnout rates in national elections. Participating universities” share ] ] the report with the ALL IN Challenge to be considered for recognition” after receiving their designated NSLVE report.
According to Anderson, NSLVE” compresses organizations to hand over students ‘ FERPA-protected data.” She claimed that third-party voter processing companies received this data after it was” transmitted through” a student data-sharing organization known as the National Student Clearinghouse ( NSC ).
Without the consent of the students, these businesses “match student details with voting databases, returning reports, lists of electors and non-voters to participating schools,” according to the complaint.
L2 and Catalist are among the” third-party voter processing companies” Anderson claims are involved in this alleged “matching.” According to InfluenceWatch, the latter is a information company that” serves both Democratic candidates and legislators” as well as left-of-center organizations.
The Education Department is asked to “investigate and need volunteer FERPA compliance by preventing” colleges and universities from transferring “FERPA-protected student data to third parties in order to create plans to increase student voter registration and voting registration.” The filing asks the government to “take legal action” against the schools if they fail to do so in accordance with FERPA.
According to Anderson’s attorney Erick Kaardal,” a plain reading of FERPA requires the U.S. Secretary of Education to intervene and stop universities from unlawfully disclosing student records under the guise of voter engagement efforts.” It is a clear violation of federal law, and the DoE has a duty to take action right away, if universities are providing student data for ballot harvesting.
The Education Department did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment on whether Anderson’s complaint has been received or whether it intends to conduct an investigation into the allegations made in the filing.
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Shawn Fleetwood is a University of Mary Washington graduate and a staff writer for The Federalist. He previously worked for Convention of States Action as a state content writer, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Conservative Review, RealClearPolitics, and RealClear Health. Follow him on Twitter at @ShawnFleetwood
