Subject: Comment on Proposed Consent Agreement

Please accept this as a public comment on the proposed consent agreement captioned "Educational Research Center of America, Inc., et al." and assigned File No. 022 3249, as described in the Federal Register of February 4, 2003 (68 FR 5640).

I am a parent of three children, the youngest of whom is age 15. My wife is a full-time teacher in a local elementary school.

We believe that the proposed consent agreement with the various entities named as respondents to the Federal Trade Commission's complaint is deficient with respect to the proposed remedies.

In particular, we believe that the "surveys" should require the informed consent of a parent or legal guardian before the information volunteered by a minor student can be used for any purpose by the respondents.

We are deeply concerned that the disclosures described in Part II of the proposed consent order will be provided in such a manner that the minor students will ignore it; further, we question whether the language in which such disclosure may be made will be understandable. It seems to us that in general, legally mandated disclosures usually are couched in language that is impenetrable and obfuscatory in order to discourage adult consumers from reading and understanding the information being disclosed.

We further encourage the Commission to decry and discourage the waste of teaching time represented by respondents' requests to teachers and guidance counselors to collect the requested information. We are aware that in many instances, the request is accompanied by a promise to benefit the school in some manner. We believe that time devoted to teaching in today's schools is sufficiently limited without allocating any of it to the completion of "surveys" of the nature described in the Analysis to Aid Public Comment.

Thank you for this opportunity to participate in the process. Please note that we especially appreciate the opportunity to comment electronically.

Jonathan and Maureen Miller
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