Bob Kellogg - OneNewsNow - 8/19/2011 4:10:00 AM
With a number of states rebelling against the demands of "No Child Left Behind," federal dominance over public education may be threatened.
Montana is one of the first to strongly defy the mandates of the failed No Child Left Behind program. So to maintain federal control of education, the Obama administration is introducing a waiver program to deal with the problem -- sidestepping Congress in doing so.
"So, the administration is saying, 'We don't care what Congress wants,'" notes Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute. "Congress hasn't acted as fast as the president says that it should, so the president's just saying, 'We'll make laws, and Congress will have to catch up to us.' Of course, this is federally unconstitutional."
John Kline, head of the House Committee on Education, has confronted Secretary Duncan about usurping legislators, but to no avail.
"Libertarians and many conservatives have been saying for a long time this is what happens when you violate the Constitution and you give the federal government powers that it is not granted. It will use them, it will consolidate it, it will abuse them, and you move further and further toward, we're obviously not a dictatorship yet, but you get a lot closer to that," McCluskey warns.
Because the waiver program is not fully in place, Secretary Duncan has relented and struck a deal with Montana to avoid a public showdown.
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