This paper, prepared for the Center for Research and Education in American Liberties Conference in 1968, argues that education is the foundation upon which democratic politics stands because of the transmittal by schools of the skills and values necessary for our political system to operate. The objective of the paper is to show the relationship between the political system, the public school, and the political socialization process, and, moreover, to show how they can be studied. Concern is given to the development of political values as they relate to civil liberties. By adapting Easton's model of a system to the educational sub-system for explanation purposes, the authors analyze the way in which the political system influences the political values taught in schools. Schools, the most important institution for the furnishing of political values and knowledge, do not have the same impact on children of different socio-economic classes. Most schools are middle-class institutions governed by middleclass individuals and in the service of a middle-class value system. Lower class pupils, authority oriented, derive a civil education that differs from the process-oriented middleclass child. (Author/SJM)