Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events MaryEllen Elia speaks during a news conference after the Board of Regents elected her as the new state education commissioner in 2015, in Albany, N.Y. The education commissioner of New York State, MaryEllen Elia, is in hot water over a controversy about an assignment given to high school students to argue for or against the "Final Solution," the extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazis in World War II.