"Education" is the mantra of today's knowledge society. Through better education, the major problems of our time are to be solved. Schools are expected to resolve the disruptions, inequalities, and conflicts arising from increasing heterogeneity in society. This is the central agenda of the transition from the welfare state to the competitive state. Richard Münch critically analyzes this reform agenda, focusing on the pioneering role of the USA. At the center of this analysis is the replacement of the educational establishment in the control centers of educational bureaucracy by an educational industrial complex, where international organizations, think tanks, consulting firms, missionary billionaire foundations, education reformers, and education researchers collaborate with the education and testing industry to subject the school education process to meticulous externalization.