In this speech, the author makes recommendations for the development of a national policy that would delineate roles among local school districts, intermediate school districts, States, and the Federal Government concerning the operation of school programs, the financing of school programs, and school governance. The author recommends that (1) States use a classification (weighting system) to express educational load in State school finance formulas; (2) States experiment with either full State funding plans or with foundation programs in revising their school State finance systems; (3) State tax commissions be given sufficient authority to improve the administration of taxes in States where taxes on property continue to be used as partial support for schools; (4) States revise their total school finance systems; (5) the Federal Government assume responsibility for a basic underwriting of general school finance and equalize support among the States in a given year period; (6) intermediate districts be used for the delivery of some school programs and services if they can do so more economically than local districts; (7) the operation of school programs remain the chief responsibility of local school boards; and (8) coordination of educational functions be achieved by assigning a given function to that echelon of the system closest to the student. [Page 1 may reproduce poorly]. (Author/JF)