During the late 1980s, the report Administering for Excellence (the Picot Report), and the Labour Government's definitive policy response, Tomorrow's Schools, ushered in a new era in New Zealand. In what was seen as a decisive stroke, New Zealand's 110 year old three-tiered education system was swept away to be replaced by a two-component system, consisting of a new Ministry of Education and individual learning institutions. This timely book argues that the New Zealand educational reforms were the product of longstanding unresolved educational issues that came to a head during the profound economic and cultural crisis of the 1970s and early 1980s. As such, they reflected a complex mixture of both right-wing and left-wing ideals, and local and international influences in which no single group emerged victorious. In thus viewing educational reform within the wider context of public policy making, this book aims to make a wider contribution to the global policy debate.