mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
mr. chairman , i rise in support of parents and students within my own silicon district , and from parents and students across this country . 
the privacy of high school students across this nation is compromised by a provision of the elementary and secondary education act , also known as no child left behind , which requires school districts to provide the personal , private information of students to military recruiters at the risk of losing scarce federal dollars . 
parents in my district complain to me that their children were being persistently contacted at home by military recruiters . 
these parents wanted to know how the military recruiters got their children 's personal , confidential information , including home phone numbers and addresses . 
my amendment would prohibit the department of education from withholding education dollars from school districts that decline to provide private student information to military recruiters . 
the decision to join the military is a solemn one . 
ideally this decision should be made in consultation with people who love and care for the child , not with a government official , however well intentioned , whose very job is to recruit for the military . 
as a policymaker and former high school teacher and principal , i am concerned with the increasing pressure faced by schools and school districts due to cuts in the federal dollars of education . 
i support the military 's right to recruit on every high school campus , but i do not believe the current provision advances our national security or reflects our nation 's respect for individual privacy rights . 
indeed , other federal privacy statutes explicitly recognize individual privacy rights , particularly those of minors . 
the children 's on-line privacy act prohibits commercial web sites or on-line services from releasing personally identifiable information of minors . 
federal agencies are prohibited from divulging personal information without written consent . 
blockbuster is prohibited from releasing lists of videos that their customers rent , yet for some reason it is acceptable to force schools to provide military recruiters with personal information of their students . 
this violates the trust between schools and students and their parents . 
schools should not be in a position to choose between students and federal funding . 
more importantly , there is no reason for the federal government to interfere with the values and choices made by local school districts and boards . 
this amendment closely mirrors legislation i have introduced , bipartisan legislation , cosponsored by 46 of my esteemed colleagues . 
this legislation is supported by the national parents and teachers association , the pta . 
this legislation has also received 24 , 537 citizen cosponsors who have signed a petition to indicate their support of my legislation . 
this includes 13 , 000 parents and 5 , 000 teachers from all 50 states who have lined up behind our efforts to secure privacy for our nation 's students . 
opponents of this amendment will tell you that this amendment will hurt military recruiting at a time of dwindling enlistees . 
what they will not tell you is that in the past 2 years before the passage of this provision , the military exceeded recruiting goals . 
clearly , the drop has no relationship with information provided by schools . 
our nation has the best trained and most powerful armed forces in the world , and maintaining our military superiority depends upon effective recruiting . 
this country also has a proud history of personal rights and privacy protection . 
i believe we can sustain one while preserving the other . 
we must protect the children and the students who represent the future of our country . 
this includes protecting their privacy . 
just today , the washington post ran a story detailing department of defense intentions to create a student data base which would include personal information including social security numbers , ethnicity , and grade point averages . 
this is but another egregious attack on the privacy rights of our students . 
students have neither the ability to confirm nor correct information in its data base . 
finally , this information is gathered from commercial data brokers and state registries by a third party . 
i urge my colleagues to send a strong message to the country that the congress supports privacy rights of our nation 's students and vote for the honda-stark amendment . 
mr. chairman , i yield back the balance of my time . 
