Editorial: Don't share student data in credit card deal
It's kind of fun to have a big orange and blue University of Illinois logo or the Chicago Bears' fierce namesake pictured on your credit or debit card. So why not have a choice of your high school mascot, too?
On the face of it, we agree - why not? Along with beloved logos, so-called affinity cards often offer deals to cardholders or revenue shares to nonprofits. That's the attraction to some in West Aurora Unit District 129, which could get 25 cents for every $100 charged on a card featuring the school's Blackhawks logo.
In making a pitch, the Kane County Teachers Credit Union estimated 1,350 active cards, each charging $625 a month, would net the school district $25,313 a year, Daily Herald Staff Writer Susan Sarkauskas wrote this week.
It's a resourceful approach to boosting school funds, but it comes with potential hitches that postponed a vote by the school board on Monday. Some board members object to providing ads touting the cards in school publications. One opposed promoting credit cards to students who might not have the savvy to manage them well.
All are valid concerns. But another that caught our eye was the clause that would give District 129 mailing lists of employees and students to the credit union, so it can contact them for sales.
Now, names and addresses of students and employees aren't quite as private as you might think. Business superintendent Angie Smith said District 129 recently released employee names and addresses in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Students' names and addresses can be released, and often are, to military recruiters, colleges and others, unless a parent or guardian has opted out in writing, according to district policy and federal law.
Release of student names and addresses, in particular, is worth a broader debate. Perhaps parental opt-outs should be more detailed or more frequent, or a closer look taken at which outside entities have access to the information.
One thing is clear: Schools or their foundations or booster clubs shouldn't profit off the release of student information.
Perhaps District 129 could counter with a credit card deal that doesn't include contact lists. After all, the credit union and school district still would benefit from people who learn about the cards by other means.
Procuring address lists is big business, but there's no reason schools should be a party to it - especially when it involves people who aren't yet adults.