Strategic planning is a rational, private-sector planning model that results in a document outlining the "ideal vision" for the individual, organization, and society. Public schools gained familiarity with strategic planning through the American Association of School Administrators, who sponsor the activity as a combination of rational process and discipline helping to define education's niche in a chaotic environment. A key ingredient is meaningful participation of all relevant stakeholders, including school staff, parents, business representatives, political leaders, and sometimes students. Based on Michel Foucault's interdisciplinary efforts to discuss the power/knowledge concept, this paper critically examines the messages surrounding the strategic planning process and the actual published results of 88 school districts across the country. Viewing strategic planning as a discursive practice founded on "rules of right," the paper explores how the texts represent social reconstructions of power/knowledge relationships within the school community. Results suggest that strategic plan language creates notions of schooling, education, teaching, learning, and success and solidifies the practices and power relationships surrounding these notions. The plan becomes the subject, and the practices and people become the objects. Although greater participation in schools and schooling is desirable, it is debatable whether strategic planning has helped school communities develop increased democratic practices. (11 references) (MLH)