We are, for the second time in a hundred years, experiencing a revolution in the politics of education. In the 1890s municipal reform wrested control of urban school systems from city political machines and their neighborhood subunits. Since then the structure of school government has rested on two types of legitimacy. These are a belief in professionalism and a commitment to middle-class influence. The institution of the nonpartisan, at-large school board not only cut the roots of the urban machine, it also destroyed neighborhood and parent access to educational decision-making. For two decades now the second political revolution has challenged the legitimacy of the professionals and the middle class. A teacher organization elite has now replaced the administrator elite. New building level access mechanisms have arisen in mandated advisory groups and community school efforts. We are now entering a trial and error phase in the second political revolution. Technological issues about teaching and learning need to be resolved before the trial and error process can end fruitfully. Careful natural history studies with open-ended theory generation as requisite goals will provide the understanding needed for the early years after the present revolution. (Author/JM)