This article largely agrees with John White's characterizations of the relationships among philosophy of education, philosophy more generally, and the conventional world. It then extends what White identifies as the fundamental problem that should now be occupying philosophy of education--the irreconcilable opposition between education for Smithian efficiency and education for Deweyian democracy--to an analysis of the relationship between philosophy of education and education policy and research. It concludes that philosophers of education committed to realizing a Deweyian form of democratic education will most likely be stymied.