The Chinese Communist Party's Fifteenth Congress established Deng Xiaoping Theory as the guiding school of thought and propelled China's construction of socialist modernization into the 21st century. Comrade Deng Xiaoping's breakthroughs in the theory of economic construction have pushed research on the relationship between education and economic construction to new heights, stimulated academic contention in education economics circles, and inspired theoretical thought. Studies on the socialist market economy and educational reform and explorations on such subjects as the education industry, educational commodities, the education market, the operation of education, fairness and efficiency in education, and so forth have become hot topics in education economics circles and presented a situation in which "a hundred schools of thought contend." Opinions vary widely in education economics circles on whether education is an industry, and no consensus has been reached. (Contains 7 notes.)