September 14, 2011 12:19PM # Sen. Rubio to Sec. Duncan: Dear Sir, Obey the Law By [Andrew J. Coulson](https://www.cato.org/people/andrew-coulson) --- SHARE Senator [Marco Rubio has just written to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan](http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/rubio-to-duncan-administration-cant-force-states-to-comply/), requesting that he not break the law. At issue is the administration’s plan to offer states waivers from the No Child Left Behind act if they agree to adopt national standards or pursue other educational goals of the administration. Rubio states that these conditional waivers violate the U.S. Constitution, the Department of Education Organization Act, and the No Child Left Behind Act. He’s right. As my Cato colleagues and I have noted many times, [the Constitution mentions neither the word “school” nor the word “education,”](http://reason.org/news/show/1002820.html) and so, under the 10th Amendment, reserves power over those concerns to the states and the people. The [Act creating the Department of Education](http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/20C48.txt) is equally clear: > No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system….\[Section 3403(b)\] Nor is the [NCLB ](http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html)particularly ambiguous: > ‘Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school’s specific instructional content, academic achievement standards and assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction. \[Section 1905\] The Secretary’s conditional waivers from NCLB mandates, in return for dancing as he desires on national standards, seem to violate all of the above. I wonder if any education reporter will have the temerity to ask Arne Duncan on what grounds he believes he is entitled to ignore these laws? Senator Rubio’s letter certainly gives them a golden opportunity to do so. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).