This paper examines the determinants of systemic education reform in the American states. Socioeconomic, political, and cultural variables are all found to affect the level of systemic education policy in each state. Unlike many studies of policy determinants, urbanization is negatively associated with this particular policy. The political factors partisan competition and legislative turnover are also found to significantly inhibit systemic reform, but this result reverses within traditionalistic political cultures. Political culture also has a strong influence on state enactment of this type of policy, showing the reluctance of traditionalistic cultures to adopt new legislative programs. These results suggest that political and cultural variables both play important roles in the creation of state policies and that the determinants of these policies differ across both policy type and substantive area. Five tables accompany the text. (EH)