Commencing as a reasonably funded research and development enterprise, the Regional Educational Laboratory Program has become an undercapitalized knowledge transfer operation, an "information utility," responsible for improving schools but constrained by inadequate funds and restrictive policies which confine the labs to working "with and through" state and local education agencies. Drawing upon Office of Educational Research and Information (OERI) program documents and recent syntheses of research on knowledge transfer, this paper explores the following questions: (1) How does the laboratory program compare with similar or analogous initiatives in areas such as agriculture, industry, defense, and health? (2) What new strategies might be developed to enhance the performance of regional educational laboratories in improving schools? and (3) How can regional educational laboratories improve their performance in transferring knowledge which helps revitalize American schools? The central argument of the paper is that regional educational laboratories are vital elements of a complex social system of educational knowledge. It is suggested that it might be prudent to focus resources on the design and conduct of quasi-experimental field studies involving alternative strategies for transferring educational research and development to those who need it. (JD)