The Board of Regents and the State Education Department govern education from pre-kindergarten to graduate school. They are constitutionally responsible for setting educational policy, standards, and rules and legally required to ensure that the entities they oversee carry them out. The board and department also provide vocational and educational services to people with disabilities.
In 2000, 79.1% of New Yorkers age 25 and older were high school graduates. Some 27.4% had obtained a bachelor's degree or higher.
The total enrollment for fall 1999 in New York's public schools stood at 2,887,776. Of these, 2,33,748 attended schools from kindergarten through grade eight, and 854,028 attended high school. Minority students made up approximately 45% of the total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools in 2001. Total enrollment was estimated at 2,940,000 in fall 2000 and is expected to reach 2,961,000 by fall 2005. Expenditures for public education in 2000/01 were estimated at $29,209,562. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2001 was 475,942.
As of fall 2000, there were 1,301,375 students enrolled in institutions of higher education. In the same year New York had 325 degree-granting institutions. In 2000 New York had 44 public two-year institutions. In 1997, minority students comprised 32.1% of total postsecondary enrollment.
There are two massive public university systems: the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY). Established in 1948, SUNY is one of the largest university systems in the country and encompasses university colleges of arts and sciences, specialized colleges, agricultural and technical colleges, statutory colleges (allied with private universities), health sciences centers, and locally sponsored community colleges. University centers include Buffalo, Albany, and Binghamton. The City University of New York was created in 1961, although many of its component institutions (including 12 four-year institutions) were founded much earlier. Under an open-enrollment policy adopted in 1970, every New York City resident with a high school diploma is guaranteed the chance to earn a college degree within the CUNY system (which CUNY campus the student attends is determined by grade point average).
The oldest private university in the state is Columbia University, founded in New York City as Kings College in 1754. Also part of Columbia are Barnard College (all women) and Columbia University Teachers College. Other major private institutions are Cornell University in Ithaca (1865); Fordham University in Manhattan and the Bronx (1841); New York University in Manhattan (1831); Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy (1824); St. John's University in Queens (1870); Syracuse University (1870); and the University of Rochester (1850). Among the state's many smaller but highly distinguished institutions are Hamilton College, the Juilliard School, the New School for Social Research, Rockefeller University, Sarah Lawrence College, Vassar College, and Yeshiva University.
Unique features of education in New York are the "Regents exams," uniform subject examinations administered to all high school students, and the Regents Scholarships Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), a higher-education aid program. The state passed a "truth in testing" law in 1979, giving students the right to see their graded college and graduate school entrance examinations, as well as information on how the test results were validated.