Why is the DOE Eager for Classroom Photos of Our School-children?

Just what is the New York City Department of Education doing soliciting photographing rights of students?
In the days before Bloomberg Education Inc., the Board of Education days, children were only occasionally used as backdrops by politicians. But now, one might argue that the NYC DOE is pimping the schoolkids to be used for a continuing stream of children promo pieces trumpeting the glory of the work of "the education mayor."
The children's images are being used on the DOE's website. To what purpose do the images serve? Of course, to manipulate emotions to make people feel support for mayor Michael Bloomberg's destructive policies.
The above photo permission release form has been issued in schools this year. But why the sudden urgency to ramp up the number of photos of kids at school? The mayor's approval rating in the education area has sunk to a low of 34 percent, lower than his overall rating of 45 percent: See the September 6, 2011 New York Times story, "New Yorkers Say Mayor Has Not Improved Schools."
And additional bad press for the mayor's standing and legacy has been the recent news that the middle class students have stagnated or fallen: See last week in the New York Daily News, January 8, 2012, "No improvement in test scores for middle-income kids during Bloomberg years: Sharp decline in 8th-grade reading results compared to other cities; math scores stagnate."
Parents should refuse to cooperate with the promotion transmission belt for mayor Bloomberg's self-promotion.
(Here is the Spanish version of the parent's release form.)