This case study describes and interprets the process through which State-level policy decisions are made for the public schools of Florida, and focuses on the people, agencies, and processes involved in the policymaking. After brief treatments of the socioeconomic environment and the political culture within which education takes place, the document considers the specific policymaking institutions (the commissioner of education, the governor, the legislature, the State department of education, and special interest groups) and their relationships, with emphasis on the structure and the process of the educational governance system. Major decisions previously made in the policy areas of school finance, desegregation, educational planning, and certification are described as actual examples of how educational policy decisions are made. A summary and an interpretation offer some concluding observations on Florida's educational governance system. Two appendixes contain summarizations of the Florida Education Finance Act of 1973 and the Teacher Education Center Act of 1973. (Pages 33, 36, and 48 may reproduce poorly.) (Author/DN)