New York has one of the highest rates of per-pupil expenditures for public education among the states. The public school system, with compulsory schooling between the ages of 6 and 16 or 17, had its beginnings in the colonial period. Schools were established by churches with government support as early as 1638 in New Amsterdam. It was not until 1791, however, that the state’s first public school was established. Some state support was granted in 1795 to elementary schools, and in 1812 a permanent system of public schools was established. Parent-paid fees provided part of the support until all elementary schools became free in 1867. During the 1850s a few cities established public secondary schools, which subsequently spread across the state during the second half of the century.

A system called the University of the State of New York—one of the most comprehensive educational organizations in the world—governs all educational activities in the state. It was established in 1784 and its governance placed under a Board of Regents. In 1904 the state legislature made the Board of Regents responsible for all educational activities in the state. The board selects the state commissioner of education, approves the establishment of new colleges, licenses entry into professions, approves new degree programs, and advises the legislature on all educational issues.

In 1948, public institutions of higher education, primarily teachers colleges and two-year agricultural and technical institutions, plus newly established institutions, were incorporated into SUNY, an institution distinct from the University of the State of New York but a part of that larger entity. Before then, private institutions had dominated higher education. In addition to the medical school at Syracuse, major SUNY centres are located at Stony Brook, Albany, Binghamton, and Buffalo. A variety of other state institutions and community colleges are supported in about equal parts by the state, the local community, and student fees. The City University of New York, supported by the state and by New York City, provides a great variety of programs ranging from those offered by two-year community colleges to graduate education. One of the oldest service academies in the world, the United States Military Academy, was founded at West Point in 1802.

There are more than 230 private institutions of higher education, including some of the best-known universities in the country. Columbia University, founded in 1754 as King’s College, is known for the high quality of its graduate instruction and for the national influence of its teachers college. Cornell University (1865), the base for the agriculture, human ecology, veterinary medicine, and industrial- and labour-relations units of the State University, is a member of the Ivy League, as is Columbia. Fordham University (1841) and St. John’s University (1870) are perhaps the best-known of the state’s many Roman Catholic colleges and universities. The University of Rochester (1850), known for its programs in music and the natural sciences, and Syracuse University (1870), home of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, the first university unit established for training students for public service, are also well-known private institutions. Other well-regarded institutions include Colgate University (1819), Hamilton College (1812), Union College (1795), St. Lawrence University (1856), Bard College (1860), Skidmore College (1903), Barnard College (1889; affiliated with Columbia), and Vassar College (1861); the latter two institutions are among the Seven Sisters schools.

Cultural institutions

The state is home to some 1,300 museums and art galleries, more than 200 theatres, and dozens of performing arts centres. Much of the style and tone of life in the United States is set in New York City, which remains the artistic and cultural capital of the country. The fashion industry is headquartered in its garment district. The heart of the country’s live theatre is found on and off Broadway; many television programs originate in New York City, where several broadcast and cable networks have their home offices, and many motion pictures are filmed on its streets. The city’s museums, theatres, orchestras, dance companies, and other institutions set standards across the country. This cultural preeminence was celebrated by E.B. White when he wrote:

The city is like poetry. It compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents—but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.

Cultural activities are not confined to New York City, however. Many art museums are located in the state’s large and small cities. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in Buffalo, has collections of contemporary American and European paintings and sculptures. In Rochester are the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, the Strong National Museum of Play, and the International Museum of Photography and Film at the George Eastman House. Syracuse’s Everson Museum of Art houses collections of American and international art in a building designed by I.M. Pei, and the city’s Erie Canal Museum is devoted to the history of the canal. The New York State Museum in Albany is the oldest (founded 1836) state museum in the United States. Symphony orchestras outside New York City include those of Buffalo and Rochester, while the Eastman School of Music in Rochester is internationally known. Fine architecture is found across the state, and the performing arts are pursued by professional and amateur groups. The cultural life of the state’s many college and university towns often is centred on these institutions.

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs is the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet. Theatrical performances also are held at this modern cultural centre. The Chautauqua Institution, founded in 1874 on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York, inspired the national chautauqua movement of public lectures and adult education during the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the institution now offers a wide range of cultural and educational activities, including concerts, opera, drama, and lectures.

Cooperstown, founded by the father of the novelist James Fenimore Cooper, is known as the village of museums, the best known of which is the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. At the Angel Moroni Monument on Hill Cumorah, near Palmyra, an annual pageant depicts the founding of the Mormon Church. South of Palmyra are the Greyton H. Taylor Wine Museum, in Hammondsport, and the Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning. Historic homes, forts, and battlefields are found throughout the state; more than one-third of all the battles of the American Revolution, including the Battles of Saratoga, were fought in New York.

New York was the first state in the Union to establish a program for continuing financial support of the arts. The New York State Council on the Arts, which administers the program, funds organizations in the fields of the performing arts, visual arts, film and media, and special programs.