In this paper I explore two distinct moments of economic and political crisis—the 1970s global crisis and the current global financial crisis—and the way major transformations in the governing of education in England have occurred as a result of these deep ruptures. However, I show that rather than interrupting the structural selectivities (Jessop, 2005) of embedded neoliberalism installed as a response to the 1970s 'crisis of crisis management' (Offe 1984), the UK state is strategically using the current 'crisis of regulatory policy' (Offe, 1996) to extend and deepen these structural transformations across the education sector. I argue that these policies are deepening the transnationalisation, commodification and financialisation of education as a sector, in turn altering the 'public' nature of the education in the education-state-social contract. These developments heighten the contradictions of neoliberalism as a hegemonic project, in turn creating a further crisis of regulatory policy.