New York is on the brink of devaluing high-school diplomas

The State Education Department has announced its intention to devalue the worth of a New York high-school diploma.

Parents should be outraged.

There will no longer be a requirement for students to pass five state Regents exams to receive a diploma.

Instead, all students will need to demonstrate vague “knowledge and skills” in seven areas, such as “critical thinking,” “cultural competence,” and “global citizenship.”

High-achieving students who pass a sufficient number of Regents tests will not receive different types of diplomas as in the previous system of Regents Diplomas, Advanced Regents Diplomas, and Local diplomas.

Instead, every district will be required to award the same diploma to every senior who meets the significantly watered-down state standards.

Whether students are knowledgeable about Shakespeare or Che Guevara, or adept at algebraic equations or wearing a keffiyeh, all graduates will receive the same participation award.

Furthermore, the ambiguous standards of “cultural competence,” “global citizenship,” etc. hint at thought control, akin to demanding “DEI loyalty statements” that are popular in college faculty hiring.

In short, a New York high-school diploma will soon be worse than worthless.

It will not indicate proficiency in math, science, history, but simply the ability to regurgitate woke slogans – mastery of preferred pronouns and the pedagogy of “oppression.”

This is the culmination of a long process influenced by a “Blue Ribbon Commission” orchestrating nonsensical recommendations, following years of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie appointing ideologues to the state Board of Regents to promote educational absurdity.

Additionally, the State Education Department has normalized pandemic-induced learning loss by adjusting performance standards based on the dismal math and English test results from 2022.

The only beneficiaries are the leaders of the state’s teachers unions, who no longer have to worry about their members being exposed as incompetent due to lack of student progress.

However, this move is likely to accelerate the departure from traditional public-school systems, with middle-class families opting for private schools and lower-class families seeking refuge in public charter schools that the teachers unions cannot shut down.

Ultimately, it will give families yet another reason to leave New York altogether.

Although the new graduation requirements are not final until the Regents vote on them on Nov. 1, there is still over four months for advocates of public education in New York to voice their opposition by flooding the Board of Regents with calls and letters urging them to reconsider this irrational decision.