The politics of education is driven by a complex interrelationship among politicians, private foundations, teachers' unions, special-interest groups, school administrators, boards of education, courts, and the "knowledge industry." Chapter 1 focuses on the major actors in the politics of education, and chapter 2 analyzes the relationships among power, knowledge, and the sources of conflict in education. Chapter 3 examines economic theories of education and the effects of the internalization of capital and labor. Chapter 4 explores some major criticisms of educational bureaucracies. Chapter 5 reviews research projects that argue there is a direct relationship among the political organization of schools, student achievement, and equality of educational opportunity. The chapter shows how the political organization of schools determines the political content of instruction. Federal involvement in education and political strategies to reform the public schools are discussed in chapter 6. Chapters 7 and 8 examine patterns in state and local politics of education. Chapter 9 summarizes the debate about curriculum, content, and testing, and the chapter 10 analyzes the political uses of the judicial system. Chapter 11 discusses the question of who should decide what knowledge is of most worth. Contains 4 tables, 4 figures, an index, and chapter references. (LMI)