"I commend the state Board of Regents for approving new rules to compel failing non-public schools to meet minimum academic standards. The Regents actions follow legislation I have sponsored to ensure that every student in New York State receives the benefits of a fundamental education as required by the state’s 127-year-old compulsory-education law. For the vast majority of nonpublic schools which satisfy their education mandate, this will not be an issue. But the casualties of these failures are the students, not the institutions that reap millions of dollars in state funding that would be better directed to deserving schools that strive to provide a sound education. At a time when education dollars are under increasing threat for reductions, we must ensure that nonpublic schools provide the substantially equivalent education that is already required of them."