This book offers a comprehensive analysis and description of the political aspects of American education, utilizing both empirical data and case studies on the politics of education. Included are two case studies of recent school policies, which focus on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 and the school desegregation movement. There is also a review of the literature that describes the work of political scientists and scholars in educational administration and suggests directions for further research. This book was previously published under the title, "The Political Web of American Schools"; this current edition has been updated to include an analysis of school governance under conditions of declining enrollment and resources. Individual chapters focus in turn on schools and the political system, schools and system support, the origins and agents of demand inputs, access channels to school policy-making, the local conversion process, the role of referenda in the conversion process, the state conversion process, the ESEA and intergovernmental relations, southern school desegregation, curricular decisions in the political system, and the politics of schools in retrospect and prospect. (JG)