US News Metro Long Island Politics

Sports NFL MLB Olympics NBA NHL College Football College Basketball WNBA

Entertainment TV Movies Music Celebrities Awards Theater

Lifestyle Weird But True Sex & Relationships Viral Trends Human Interest Parenting Fashion & Beauty Food & Drink Travel

Health Wellness Fitness Health Care Medicine Men’s Health Women’s Health Mental Health Nutrition

Science Space Environment Wildlife Archaeology

Today’s Paper Covers Columnists Horoscopes Crosswords & Games Sports Odds Podcasts Careers

Email Newsletters Official Store Home Delivery Tips

Switch between CA and NY editions here.

How Albany educrats turned NY’s once-proud schools into a national joke

See more of our coverage in your search results.

New York state once believed poor children could meet high expectations.

This week, the Board of Regents showed just how far Albany has retreated from that conviction when it chose to further erode the state’s high-school graduation requirements.Hearing the news recalled my experience a few months ago, as I discussed education as a guest on an NPR talk show in Albany.

When I mentioned that Mississippi has become a national model for improving children’s literacy, my fellow panelists laughed out loud.

These weren’t know-nothings, but academics, journalists and public-policy professionals.

Yet they were incredulous: What could New York possibly have to learn from a backward state like Mississippi?

Quite a lot, as it happens.

The end of Regents exams: Letters to the Editor — Sept. 17, 2026

New York makes it official: Our high school diploma is worthless

NY scraps high school Regents exam graduation requirement starting in 2028

On the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation’s report card, Mississippi’s fourth-graders outperformed ours in reading.

Black and Hispanic fourth-graders there scored much higher than their peers in New York, even though Mississippi spends a fraction of what we do on public education.

For generations, New York boasted of the seriousness of its educational institutions.

We built one of America’s great public university systems and some of its most selective public high schools.

Our state Board........

© New York Post