Ex-Gov. Pataki, who put Regents in place, rips ‘incredibly stupid’ axing of tests: ‘Really sad day for New York’

Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Dem cronies are dunces for allowing the dumbing down of the state’s high-school-diploma requirements by ditching the Regents exams, says the ex-gov who helped put the tests in place.

“Getting rid of the Regents is incredibly stupid,” said George Pataki, the Republican three-term New York governor from 1995 through 2006, to The Post.

“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,” Pataki said.

Former Governor George E. Pataki speaks at the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Pataki Center in Albany, NY on Aug. 5, 2026. Hans Pennink for NY Post

“So instead of doing the appropriate testing so that corrective measures could be taken to improve [performance], they simply get rid of the tests to hide their failure.”

“This is really a sad day for New York.”

Pataki was slamming the state’s education policy-making board and Education Department for phasing out the exams by 2028 that are currently required to earn a high school diploma.

There are no alternative graduation requirements in place, at least yet.

The Regents exams that students have needed to pass in math, English, science and Global Studies to obtain a diploma became a graduation requirement during Pataki’s tenure and under then-state Education Commissioner Richard Mills.

The Board of Regents earlier this month voted to make them optional as they work to develop alternative graduation requirements.

Pataki also referenced the Brooklyn elementary school that controversial woke New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones highlighted in a recent piece she wrote. Hannah-Jones admitted in the report that she knowingly “sacrificed” her daughter by sending her to the badly failing school, where her child did not thrive, to make a point to try to get other black parents to keep their kids at the neighborhood school.

“This is a disgrace,” Pataki said.

“The next time Democrats talk about income inequality, ask them how their subservience to the teachers union is helping low income minority kids get a step up in life,” he said.

Current 12th graders will be the last graduating class required to pass at least four Regents exams in math, English, science and Global Studies.

Students on track to graduate in 2028 will no longer be required to pass the exams to finish high school, but they can still take them.

The graduation policy is set by the 17-member New York Board of Regents, whose members are appointed by Democrats who control the legislature.

The governor does not have a direct role in appointing the Regents. But the Democratic Hochul has enormous power over school funding and has passed laws impacting education.

Now the debate over scrapping the Regents exams is becoming a hot potato in the race for governor.

Hochul, seeking re-election to a second term, is facing off against Republican Bruce Blakeman, the current Nassau County executive.

“We pay the highest taxes in the nation under Kathy Hochul, yet too many of our children are still not getting the results they deserve,” Blakeman said in a statement. “Taxpayers and students deserve higher standards, stronger schools and real accountability for the enormous amount of money New York spends on education.

Pataki called the removal of the Regents exams “stupid” as NY plans to phase them out by 2028. smolaw11 – stock.adobe.com

The Board of Regents and Education Commissioner Betty Rosa have debated replacing the state exams for years after appointing a blue-ribbon panel in 2019 to exam alternative graduation requirements.

Hochul addressed the explosive issue for the first time only last week, expressing concerns about the switch as she’s about to face voters again.

“Governor Hochul shares the concerns many New Yorkers have raised about the decision to eliminate the current standards for earning a high school diploma and the lack of clarity about what will replace them,” a Hochul rep said Sunday.

“While this decision rests with the independent State Education Department, she believes strongly that a New York diploma must remain a meaningful credential that students, families, colleges and employers can trust. The Board of Regents have a responsibility to preserve academic rigor and ensure clear, consistent graduation standards across the state.”

Rosa and the Regents did not take kindly to Pataki’s blunt criticism.

“We understand former Governor George Pataki has not been engaged in the education landscape since 1998 when he signed the law creating charter schools,” the state DOE said. “While he’s entitled to his political opinion, it is not reflective of the current climate and support educators statewide are providing the Department through ongoing stakeholder engagement.”

“We are committed to ensuring every New York student, not simply students fortunate enough to attend a particular school, has access to rigorous teaching and meaningful ways to demonstrate what they know and can do.”

New state graduation requirements would likely include portfolios, which focus on long-term projects and problem-solving.

SED said that as part of its new efforts, it will require students to “recognize misinformation, distinguish fact from opinion, evaluate sources, and identify claims that are presented without important context.”

“We are far more interested in equity, academic rigor, and preparing New York’s students for the future than in preserving the education politics of the 1990s,” the SED said.

“It’s also worth noting that when Pataki graduated from high school, New York students could graduate without satisfying a Regents exam requirement, and yet somehow, that era still produced a public high school graduate from Peekskill who went to Yale and later became Governor of New York,” the SED said.

The Education Department is now tasked with outlining what will replace the Regents exams.

One education expert wondered why the board scrapped the Regents exams without having an alternative accountability system in place, likening it to putting the cart before the horse.

“You can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said Stan Litow, a member of the SUNY Board of Trustees, former New York City deputy schools chancellor and architect in designing Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools or P-TECH schools.

“Removing an accountability system without a replacement in place is a flawed way of proceeding,” he said.

The Regents exams are not without flaws. Even backers of rigorous standards said the tests in recent decades were a bust, dumbed down to maintain or bolster graduation rates and subjected to grade-fixing scandals.