This contribution is an edited version of the "Alumni Lecture" organised by the Department of Education of the University of Oxford at Lady Margaret Hall on 15th September 2011. The article reviews the drift towards the centralisation of power in the way the schooling system is run, the conflict between a desire for equity in education and the promotion of the influence of market forces. It reviews standards of outcome in schools over time with a brief look at similar tensions in the influences on universities and ends with a call for a review of the distribution of powers among central government, local government and the schools.