New York’s education commissioner is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to provide what could be a major increase in school funding as districts prepare for her controversial plan to phase out the Regents exams.
Commissioner Betty Rosa’s request could set up a clash with Hochul, who has criticized efforts to eliminate the state tests that New York high school students have long been required to pass in order to graduate.
“When we have an initiative like this, we can’t be starved,” Rosa said during a Board of Regents meeting this week. She was referring to her push for alternative graduation requirements and the extensive teacher training needed to put the plan into practice.
“This state has to make a huge investment if we’re going to modernize and transform education,” Rosa said, though she did not specify how much additional funding she would seek from Hochul or the state Legislature.
Her department declined to comment to The Post.
Students have been required to pass Regents exams in math, English, science and Global Studies to earn a diploma since the tests became graduation requirements under former Gov. George Pataki and then-Education Commissioner Richard Mills.
With Rosa’s support, the Board of Regents voted in September to make the exams optional, meaning students would not be required to take them if they chose not to. The panel is developing alternative graduation requirements that could include student projects and portfolios.
However, the federal government has since stepped in and is requiring students to take the exams, regardless of how New York uses the results, according to the Albany Times Union.
Starting in 2028, New York high school students will no longer need to pass the Regents exams to graduate.
New York’s graduation policies are set by the 17-member Board of Regents, whose members are elected by lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature.
Hochul does not directly appoint the Regents, but she wields significant influence over school funding and has signed education laws she supported, including a ban on cellphones during the school day.
“The Governor’s priority remains ensuring all New York students receive a high-quality, rigorous education,” a Hochul representative said in an emailed response to Rosa’s comments. “Details of the Executive Budget will be released in January.”
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The Times Union first reported that Rosa plans to seek additional state funding to create the new graduation standards and train educators to implement them.
Teachers statewide will need guidance from experts on how to assess portfolios and other projects that students would have to complete to graduate. Evaluating that work is more complicated than grading the standardized Regents exams.
Rosa said each school may need a coach to help educators learn and apply the new graduation standards.
“We can’t keep using the excuse, ‘They’re not ready,’” Rosa said of school districts.
Last year, the Board of Regents sought a $1.1 billion increase in school funding for a range of initiatives.
Hochul has argued that she should have greater authority over education policy, including graduation requirements. The state Education Department, however, is not under her direct control.
“People see in the articles, ‘New York state abandons Regents,’” Hochul said recently on the Max Politics Podcast. “They think I’m New York.
“The buck should stop with me, given that we are the funder of education.”
Hochul’s fellow Democrats control both the Assembly and the Senate. To block or reverse the Regents’ decision to end the exams as a graduation requirement, she would likely have to engage in a bitter fight with lawmakers and the board, according to sources.
Pataki, who served as governor from 1995 to 2006, told The Post in September that “getting rid of the Regents is incredibly stupid.”
“It seems like the Education Department’s main function right now is to disguise the fact that too many New York state schools are failing to educate our kids,” the former governor said.
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