Senate vote tomorrow on privacy of schoolchildren, commercialism in public schools

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert					April 6, 2000

-- Support U.S. Senate measure regarding corporations that violate the
privacy of schoolchildren and commercialize the public schools.

The U. S. Senate is expected to vote tomorrow (Friday) on an amendment
to the Senate budget resolution, introduced by Senator Richard Shelby,
that opposes privacy invasion of schoolchildren and in-school
marketing.  

The Shelby amendment urges educators to "protect the privacy of
school-aged children in our nation's classrooms" against the privacy
invasion of corporations like the ZapMe! Corp, and states that federal
funds should not be used "to purchase advertisements from entities that
market to school children or violate student privacy during the school
day" such as Channel One or ZapMe.  The federal government is currently
a major advertiser on Channel One.

Please contact your Senators as soon as you can in support of Sen.
Shelby's amendment (S. Amdt. #2927).  

The Congressional switchboard phone is (202) 224-3121. To find the fax
numbers and e-mail addresses of Members of Congress, see
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html>.

Following is the (amended) text of Senator Shelby's resolution:

SHELBY AMENDMENT NO. 2927 (Senate - April 05, 2000)

(Ordered to lie on the table.) 

Mr. SHELBY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the
concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 101, supra; as follows: 
At the end of title III, insert the following: 

SEC. XX. SENSE OF THE SENATE. 
(a) Findings: The Senate makes the following findings: 

(1) Our Nation's children have become the ever increasing targets of
marketing activity. 

(2) Such marketing activity, which includes Internet sales pitches,
commercials broadcast via in-classroom television programming, product
placements, contests,
and giveaways, is taking place every day during class time in our
Nation's public schools. 

(3) Many State and local entities enter into arrangements allowing
marketing activity in schools in an effort to make up budgetary
shortfalls or to gain access to expensive technology or equipment. 

(4) These marketing efforts take advantage of the time and captive
audiences provided by taxpayer-funded schools. 

(5) These marketing efforts involve activities that compromise the
privacy of our Nation's children. 
(b) Sense of the Senate: It is the sense of the Senate that the levels
in this resolution assume that-- 

(1) in-school marketing and information-gathering activities-- 

(A) are a waste of student class time and taxpayer money; 

(B) exploit captive student audiences for commercial gain; and 

(C) compromise the privacy rights of our Nation's school children and
are a violation of the public trust Americans place in the public
education system; 

(2) State and local educators should remove commercial distractions from
our Nation's public schools and should protect the privacy of
school-aged children in our Nation's classrooms; 

(3) Federal funds should not be used in any way to support the
commercialization of our Nation's classrooms or the exploitation of
student privacy, nor to purchase advertisements from entities that
market to school children or violate student privacy during the school
day; and 

(4) Federal funds should be made available to State and local entities
in order to provide the entities with the financial flexibility to avoid
the necessity of having to enter into relationships with third parties
that involve violations of student privacy or the introduction of
commercialization into our Nation's classrooms. 
<-------amendment text ends here------->

For more information about privacy invasion of schoolchildren, in-school
marketing and commercialization of the schools, see Commercial Alert's
website at <http://www.essential.org/alert/>.

Commercial Alert opposes corporate exploitation of children and the
excesses of commercialism, advertising and marketing.

Commercial Alert's materials are distributed electronically via the
commercial-alert mailing list <commercial-alert@lists.essential.org>. To
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<http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/commercial-alert> or send
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PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
-- 
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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