By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — New York State officials have backed away from a proposal to cut several Regents tests to bridge a budget gap after meeting in Albany Monday night, the Buffalo News reported.
The Board of Regents committee met to discuss ways to shed millions from the state Education Department’s budget and was supposed to be considering slashing nearly $14 million by doing away with several statewide Regents exams.
But the committee reportedly didn’t consider a controversial proposal that would have eliminated as many as 13 of the 17 tests.
Instead, education officials are looking for ways to place more emphasis on tests throughout the year, rather than the major exams, the Buffalo News reported.
Maria Neira, vice-president of New York State United Teachers, said the idea of making large scale cuts was an “an attention-getting proposal” by the Board of Regents, which is lobbying for increased funding for the state Education Department.
At a City Hall press conference announcing that New York City’s graduation rate had increased during the 2008-’09, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “you probably can’t” when asked if improving education is possible amid budget cuts.
“We’ve got to find a way to do more with less,” he added. “The taxpayers don’t want to pay any more. … Albany can’t bail us out.”
Under the current system, students have to pass five Regents exams in order to graduate and pass seven exams to earn an advanced diploma. The exams are viewed as the chief measure for students looking to graduate high school in the state.
Exams that were supposed to be considered for elimination fell under the subject categories of geography, math and foreign languages, and there has also been talk of no longer translating exams into Chinese, Korean, Russian and Haitian Creole, the Associated Press reported.
“There wasn’t much support for reducing science or math assessments,” Robert M. Bennett, a Regents committee member, told the Buffalo News.
