The paper examines the connections between the new governance in education and new procedures of social exclusion and inclusion in Finland. The main focus is in an emergence of a specific discursive formation constituted by collisions and intersections of the myths of competition, corporate managerialism, an educational clientele and social democratic egalitarianism with images of rational choice makers and invisible clients (pupils) and individual-centred learning professionals (teachers) in a mass institution. The research material is extensive including national statistical data, education policy texts, interviews with educational actors at the national, municipal and school levels, and surveys of pupils and parents. The conclusion of the paper outlines a new system of reason as a historical shift of responsibilities in the national education system. At the same time, however, some hints of possibilities for something we call a 'revisionist education policy', going beyond the traditional egalitarianism and new market fundamentalism, may be found.