The research on which this paper is based examined the legislative process resulting in Minnesota's tuition tax concession statutes through a study of four decision events: the 1955 passage of a tax deduction, the 1971 adoption of a tax credit, the 1976 increase of the 1955 deduction allowance, and the 1981 retention of this deduction in a climate of fiscal scarcity. The paper includes a description of the Minnesota study, a characterization of the legislative process, and a discussion of the implications of that characterization for educational policy making. The conceptual framework of the Minnesota study combined categories of political influence with a systems orientation. Implications of the analysis of the legislative process include the following: (1) that political expediency was a more important determinant of the legislative process than policy information and policy analysis; (2) that single-issue interest groups are adversely affecting the legislative process by diminishing the prospects for compromise or rational deliberation; (3) that a debilitating lack of cohesion exists in the public school lobby; and (4) that the study provides a point of departure for research on tuition tax concession decisionmaking and a point of comparison for research on educaiton policymaking. Notes are included, along with an appendix listing tuition tax concession litigation in Minnesota. (TE)