A former Illinois GOP House candidate filed a legal complaint on Thursday requesting the Education Department investigate several Midwestern colleges for allegedly sharing protected student data with third parties working to boost left-wing get-out-the-vote efforts on university campuses.
Brought by Republican Desi Anderson, who unsuccessfully ran for state House in the 2024 election, the complaint contains claims that numerous universities across Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin have unlawfully violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by using “students’ FERPA-protected data to make and implement student voter registration drives (VRD) and student get-out-the-vote campaigns (GOTV).”
According to the Department of Education, FERPA “affords parents the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and…
