THE AUTHOR'S POSITION WAS THAT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT VARIABLES (LEVEL OF URBANIZATION, INDUSTRIALIZATION, INCOME, AND EDUCATION) ARE MOST CLOSELY CORRELATED TO EDUCATIONAL POLICY OUTCOMES (EDUCATIONAL EXPENDITURES, STATE EFFORTS IN EDUCATION ORGANIZING AND FINANCING PUBLIC SCHOOLS, STATUS OF TEACHERS, AND NUMBER OF DROPOUTS AND SELECTIVE SERVICE MENTAL FAILURES) THAN POLITICAL SYSTEM VARIABLES (PARTISAN CHARACTER, PARTY COMPETITION, POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, AND MALAPPORTIONMENT OF THE STATES). DATA FROM 50 STATES WERE SUBJECTED TO SIMPLE, PARTIAL, AND MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS TO ASSESS THE EFFECT OF THE VARIABLES ON EDUCATIONAL POLICY OUTCOMES. SIMPLE CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS COMPUTED FOR ALL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL VARIABLES AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY OUTCOMES INDICATED THAT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES. NO MEANINGFUL SIMPLE CORRELATIONS EXIST, HOWEVER, BETWEEN PARTICULAR POLITICAL VARIABLES AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY OUTCOMES. MULTIPLE CORRELATION ANALYSIS CORRELATING ALL ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL VARIABLES AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES SIMULTANEOUSLY EXPLAINS MOST VARIATION AMONG THE 50 STATES IN IMPORTANT POLICY OUTCOMES. THROUGH THE USE OF MULTIPLE-PARTIAL CORRELATION A COMPARISON OF THE INDIVIDUAL EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL VARIABLES CAN BE MADE. THE DATA ILLUSTRATE THAT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT VARIABLES ARE MORE INFLUENTIAL THAN POLITICAL SYSTEM VARIABLES IN SHAPING POLICY OUTCOMES. (GB)