With the large number of children involved and the huge amounts of taxpayer dollars distributed by and/or used by State Ed., a higher calibre board of directors, both in terms of credentials and in terms of actual functioning, appears to be urgently required. And an independent Inspector General – well funded and with full subpoena power – is equally urgently required in order to bring transparency into this agency’s functioning, or, given NY’s dismal outcomes on tests which State Ed. and the Regents don’t control (SAT, NAEP), malfunctioning.

Writ simple, it’s time everything about State Ed., including the selection of its board of directors, the Regents, is brought out from under some rock and into the full light of day. Only then can the public and parents determine on their own whether the Regents are well-meaning, hard working volunteers – or something less. Parents and taxpayers pay the bill for this agency and are entitled to the information necessary to make this decision on their own.

The allocation of education funding is an executive-legislative function. The Regents neither distributes education dollars or deals with the allocation formula.

Although selected by a joint meeting of both house of the legislature the Regents have always been highly regarded, businessmen, academics and retired public school or college practitioners. The Regents are surprisingly free of “party” politics.

There is regular turnover in Regents, it is a very time-consuming job, with no remuneration, and no staff. The Regents depend on State Education staff.

In California the state commissioner is elected in a state-wide election. In other states the governor appoints state ed commissioners.

The only “measure” of what the public – parents, taxpayers, and of course, children – get for this vast sum of money turns out to be a set of test scores, upon which graduation and dropout rates depend, which is entirely controlled – and manipulated – by State Ed. As we’ve seen over the past two years, these numbers are entirely unreliable and never independently audited or verified. Where is the accountability for real student outcomes, rather than those so highly crafted by State Ed.? While the Board of Regents has the legal authority and responsibility for insuring that parents, taxpayers and children receive full value for the monies expended, and the for years of children’s time which may be frittered away by an unaccountable public education industry, the fact is that both the Regents and State Ed. itself operate behind closed doors and under a veil of secrecy. We all deserve better.

At least we should know what is the binding Code of Ethics which governs the Regents. I’ve searched for one but so far have come up empty handed. Legislation, please!

There’s far too much at stake here to allow this agency and its board of directors to continue operating totally independently and, as always, with the real decisions being made behind the scenes, or in the case of Regent selection, … perhaps under some rock?

State Ed. has no independent Inspector General and the NYS Inspector General has no authority over its operations. The NYS Comptroller can audit State Ed. but has no authority to require it to clean up its act when irregularities or severe problems are disclosed. Repetitive US Dept. of Ed. Inspector General audits have reported substantial State Ed. misconduct: its promises to engage in meaningful corrective actions have also, repetitively, been shown to be empty. At best.

The current meeting of the Board of Regents allocates a full 40 minutes for its Audits/Finance and Budget Committee to “oversee” the entire financial operations of the NYS public education industry and of State Ed. itself. For this reason alone, we all deserve more.

It’s time and timely to bring everything about this agency out into the open and subject to legitimate public scrutiny. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Please – let the antiseptic process begin. Now.