Discusses the nature and dynamics of conservatism in relation to the politics of education. Argues that, because the state has replaced society and the workplace as the locus of class struggle, implementation of conservative educational and fiscal policies face barriers created by popular resistance and failures within the New Right itself. (KH)

In order to determine if -- assuming that the teacher's role as an authority figure is different in the open classroom than in the traditional classroom -- classroom arrangement affects students' attitudes toward governmental authority figures, a questionnaire was administered to public elementary school children from a suburban school in a large…