A St. John’s parent is asking serious questions about why the provincial government has chosen to entrust the private data of students and families in this province with a US equity firm.

Government last week revealed that the private data of 271,000 students and 14,000 teachers in this province was breached as the result of a cyber security incident involving the PowerSchool app in December.

PowerSchool is used by schools and school boards across North America. Parents and students must sign on to access marks, assignments and even pay school fees for field trips and sports tournaments.

Josh Lepawsky, who has a student in the public system, wants to know why the provincial government has chosen to use PowerSchool which is owned by US equity firm Vista Equity.

Lepawsky wants to know why the province is using public funds to boost the profits of a US private equity firm that is using the data it collects from the public school system as a commodity.

“Especially one that is deriving those profits from our data – people in this province, including children,” says Lepawsky. “That seems like poor decision-making” he says of the provincial school system.

Lepawsky calls the assurance that those affected will be offered free credit monitoring for a two-year period, cold comfort and another red flag.

“We’re being told about those free services as if that should make us feel better, but when I hear that a private company is willing to spend (hundreds of millions of dollars in the case of affected Newfoundlanders and Labradorians alone) to cover those services, if anything, it does the opposite of instill trust in me. It seems to me like if you’re willing to pay that much money, the breach is far more serious than the kind of communication that we’re getting.”

He wants to know why the province isn’t seeking out services from local tech companies to provide the service.