The quality of elementary and secondary education was the most important issue for the American public in the 1980s. The nation's economic health, social well-being, political viability, and international standing depend to a great degree on the success of our education system. As well as ensuring equal opportunity for all Americans, schools help provide students with the skills needed in a knowledge-based society. Two institutional barriers exist to improving the education system: the beliefs that education should not be political, and that education is a science. Education is necessarily political. Many of the conflicts in education result from a mistaken belief that modernist changes to education are technical rather than political. Education must be guided by deeper purposes: conservativism, liberty, discipline, continued learning, and individual development. The other major barrier to education improvement is the belief that education is a science, and not an art. Treating education as a science has led to the institutionalization of the suspension of judgment at the lower levels. More money is not the solution to educational excellence; reallocation of money is. The federal government must provide support and guidance for the research and analytical activities of individual schools and states. (Contains 39 references.) (JPT)