PHILADELPHIA — Despite calls from some quarters for a national student ID that would allow for better tracking of student outcomes, the Trump administration’s “outward hostility” to immigrants and Muslims makes now the worst possible time to implement such a thing.
That was the argument that Chad Marlow, advocacy and policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), put forth at a recent higher education forum at the University of Pennsylvania.
Marlow made his remarks during a panel about the merits of having a national student ID — something that Congress banned in 2008 in the name of privacy but which some critics say was successfully pushed by private colleges to mask poor outcomes for students.
Some lawmakers have pushed to lift the federal ban on student-level data being included in a federal database through proposed legislation known as the “Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2015.”
The idea is to “provide for more accurate and complete data on student retention, graduation, and earnings outcomes at all levels of postsecondary enrollment,” according to the 2015 bill.
Marlow said although there are benefits to student-level data being included in a federal database, such a database would currently be prone to misuse given the Trump administration’s anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant efforts.
