This article addresses reform of Roma education in Slovakia against the backdrop of continued stigmatization of Roma students. Transnational NGOs and IGOs promote rights-based solutions leading to the fullest possible inclusion of Roma students in mainstream education. The Slovak state promotes educational policies that lead to the fullest possible assimilation of Roma students in the Slovak cultural milieu. Grass-roots NGOs promote small-scale, practical solutions that involve compromise and avoid alienating authorities. But Roma students labor within intractable cycles of stigmatization in which educational advancement is not for most a real possibility.