This paper is part of a larger study looking at the issues involved as two large urban Canadian school boards, in Winnipeg and Toronto, responded to the demands of poor, inner city areas over the last thirty years of the twentieth century. In this paper we focus our attention on the broader stage on which education policy takes place. We draw from our data three overarching themes that we believe are critical for understanding change in inner-city education over this period. These are: 1) The diminishing role of school boards, as provincial governments took more control of education policy and limited the scope of school boards, 2) The importance of unique, and sometimes unexpected local events, and 3) The powerful implications for schools and education policy of increasing population diversity in cities.