In recent years, according to the author, an outpouring of federal and state laws and judicial rulings has led educators to feel that they are subjected to unreasonable regulation. To examine the possible causes and cures of this feeling of regulatory intrusiveness, the author compares the regulation of business with the regulation of education. In discussing each field, the author covers, first, overinclusive regulations, legalistic enforcement, costly compliance measures, and other factors that he considers make regulatory programs both unreasonable and ineffective. Next the paper describes strategies of regulatory reform--especially flexible enforcement--that might curtail regulatory unreasonableness. Finally, the obstacles to flexible enforcement are analyzed, including enforcement officials' fear of scandal, their disapproval of nonuniform treatment, and their imperviousness to arguments based on regulatory costs. (Author/RW)