## Facts

- The Nebraska Legislature authorized the Superintendent of Public Instruction (Decker) to formulate rules and regulations for the approval of high schools in connection with eligibility to collect free high school tuition money.
- The statutory language granting this approval-rule authority did not set out specific, numeric criteria for approval on its face.
- Acting under that authority, the superintendent issued “Criteria for Approved Schools,” including Rule III-3, effective July 1, 1952.
- Rule III-3 required that the high school teacher-pupil ratio for grades 9–12 “shall not be less than 1–5.”
- School District No. 39 of Washington County, a rural district generally known as Rose Hill, operated elementary grades and a small high school program (including ninth and tenth grades).
- Rose Hill’s high school had a 1:4 teacher-pupil ratio, which did not meet the 1:5 minimum.
- On May 12, 1953, the superintendent removed Rose Hill from the list of approved high schools for the 1953–1954 year based on the ratio rule.
- The district alleged serious consequences from removal, including loss of eligibility connected to free high school tuition funds and related school-law benefits tied to approved status.
- In the trial court, the superintendent acknowledged the 5:1 ratio was arbitrary and also acknowledged he had waived the ratio requirement for other schools.
- The district filed an equity action seeking to enjoin enforcement of Rule III-3 and to prevent the superintendent from treating Rose Hill as not having an approved high school.
- The trial court denied injunctive relief and upheld the superintendent’s action; the district appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether the statutory grant authorizing the superintendent to formulate rules for approval of high schools for free-tuition purposes was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power because it lacked adequate standards.
2. Whether Rule III-3’s minimum 5:1 student-teacher ratio—and the superintendent’s removal of Rose Hill from the approved list for noncompliance—was within the superintendent’s lawful authority.

## Decision

- The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the judgment denying an injunction.
- The court held that the Legislature’s grant of rulemaking power to the superintendent was not an unconstitutional delegation when the school statutes were read together; sufficient standards and direction could be drawn from the statutory scheme governing high school approval and free high school tuition.
- Because the delegation was valid, Rule III-3 fell within the superintendent’s authority to set approval requirements connected to the statutory program.
- The superintendent’s action removing Rose Hill from the approved list for failing to meet the 1:5 ratio was sustained, and the district was not entitled to injunctive relief.

## Legal Principles

- The Legislature may confer discretion on an administrative official if the governing statutes supply adequate standards to guide the exercise of that discretion.
- Standards need not appear as numeric criteria in a single sentence; courts may read related statutes together (in pari materia) to determine whether the Legislature supplied workable guidance and policy.
- Rulemaking that sets technical requirements for school approval can be an administrative function when it carries out a legislative policy choice, such as conditioning access to a statutory tuition-funding program on meeting approval criteria.
- Courts generally presume statutes are constitutional and will uphold a delegation where legislative purpose and constraints are reasonably identifiable from the statutory framework.

## Conclusion

School District No. 39 of Washington County v. Decker held that Nebraska’s statutory authorization for the Superintendent of Public Instruction to formulate rules for high school approval in connection with free high school tuition did not violate the nondelegation doctrine when considered alongside related school statutes, and the court therefore upheld the superintendent’s minimum 5:1 student-teacher ratio rule and affirmed denial of injunctive relief to the rural district removed from the approved list for failing to meet that standard.


School District No. 39 of Washington County v. Decker, 68 N.W.2d 354 (1955)