This monograph is based on a conference that was held under the sponsorship of the Midwest Administration Center, Department of Education of the University of Chicago, in February 1977. The conference centered on varying interpretations of the role of the school, the home, and the state in the governing and financing of education in Illinois and in the nation, as well as on conflicting views of the responsibilities of the local, state, and national governments. The program reflected the fact that disputes that arise as a result of overlapping jurisdictions are processed in state and national legislatures as well as by local school boards and that a revised and more activist role has been taken by state and federal court systems in recent years. The general trend appears to be toward a centralizing of decision-making, with a substantial degree of power being shifted from localities to both state and federal government, but especially to the latter. The main focus of the conference was on policies respecting educational finance at the state rather than the national level, and, in particular, on the present status and future outlook of the new school finance reform movement. (Author/IRT)