Opinion

The Regents’ latest step on the road to ruin for New York schools

Here we go again: The state Board of Regents this week OK’d the creation of a Blue Ribbon Commission on New York State Diplomas — which will plainly be a fig leaf for yet another round of watering down high-school graduation requirements, effectively ending any need to pass five Regents exams.

It’d be one thing if the state were simply returning to the old, two-tiered system: Then, teens on an academic track took five or more Regents exams to show college-readiness, and got a Regents diploma. Other graduates earned only a “local diploma.”

New York abandoned that system with the grand ambition of having all kids succeed at the higher level. But it’s plainly headed to a system where no graduate is allowed to show excellence.

(Indeed, they’re looking to kill that chance in lower grades, too: This week’s meeting also featured Regents discussing how federally required state exams for grades 3-8 are supposedly meaningless.)

In recent years, the Regents have moved to inflate graduation rates by dropping passing scores from 65 to 55%, as well as letting district superintendents grant diplomas to students with disabilities who score below 55 on the Regents. They’ve also created alternative pathways, such as earning Regents credit by completing a “capstone project.”

Yet even that system is too “rigid,” according to the Regents head, Chancellor Betty Rosa, who faults the tests for too many students “leaving high school without a diploma.”

That’s absurd. Dropout rates were higher 25 years ago, and statewide graduation rates are ticking upward.

The real agenda here is simply to further erode any standard that might expose public schools as failing to educate. Ever since forcing the exit of Chancellor Merryl Tisch in 2015, the Regents have watered-down standards on teacher training, teacher accountability and state tests for grades 3-8 as well as the Regents exams.

To be clear: Educators can and should debate all these issues. The problem is that all the Regents are on the same side of the underlying questions, with no voice to stop the rush to make diplomas meaningless.

Instead, they’re now going to convene a panel of credentialed experts to provide cover for more across-the-board erosion. It’s all a disgraceful con.