Today the majority defines a "sound basic education" as "a meaningful high school education, one which prepares [young people] to function productively as civic participants" (majority opn at 12). While unimpeachable, what exactly does this supposed refinement of a "sound basic education" mean? Does a "meaningful high school education" entail a high school diploma, requiring completion of the twelfth grade? Evidently not, because the majority notes that a "a sound basic education should not be pegged to the eighth or ninth grade, or indeed to any particular grade level" (majority opn at 10). This begs the question of how the courts (or the other branches) are expected to figure out whether the majority's constitutional minimum (i.e., a "sound basic education" defined as a "meaningful high school education" that prepares students "to function productively as civic participants") has been met if completion of the twelfth grade and graduation are irrelevant. Similarly, the majority observes that a "high school level education is now all but indispensable" for employment (majority opn at 9), without suggesting how a job applicant establishes that level of competence absent a diploma. Further, if the majority means to imply that some quantum of high school education short of graduation comprises a "meaningful high school education," how is this measured other than by relating it to completion of some grade level lower than the twelfth? The requirements for a high school diploma are defined by the State Education Department (8 NYCRR § 100.5 [2003]). Students who entered ninth grade in 2001-2002 and those thereafter (except students with disabilities) will only be eligible for a high school diploma upon satisfactorily meeting Regents Learning Standards (RLSs)(8 NYCRR § 100.5[a][3] [2003]). Thus, if a "meaningful high school education" does, in fact, mean a high school diploma, the majority's standard "cede[s] to a [S]tate agency the power to define a constitutional right" (majority opn at 12) -- a result it emphatically rejects. Although the majority resists adopting the Regents Learning Standards to define a "sound basic education" or a "meaningful high school education," the Board of Regents is, in fact, the constitutionally designated educational policy making body in our State. "The adoption of regulations with respect to graduation requirements, including basic competency examinations, to establish a standard that would make a high school diploma in this State a meaningful credential of the graduate, is clearly within the authority and power of [the Board of Regents and Commissioner of Education]" ( Matter of Board of Educ. of