This paper presents findings of a case study that identified the new forms of accountability and control being constructed locally in the education service of England and Wales since the major legislative changes made in 1988. The changes include local school management, grant-maintained schooling, and competitive contract tendering. The 1988, 1992, and 1993 Education Acts constitute an institutional and political threat to the local education agencies (LEAs). A shift in the locus of power--a combination of devolution and centralization--reduces LEA power and budgetary freedom and endangers local democratic control over education. The paper presents findings of case studies of two LEAs, illustrating the extent to which LEA systems and processes have been variously reconstructed since 1988 to create new and distinctive cultures and to produce new forms of control and accountability. A conclusion is that the argument to remove education from the political arena (Chubb 1990) is being fulfilled in the United Kingdom. The new "invisible" politics of education allow certain interests to maximize their advantages through domination of local magistocracies and their abilities to "work" deregulated market systems. (LMI)