Marxist theorists have strongly argued that understanding the role of the State is central to analysis of how capitalist societies have been maintained without serious crisis. Marxist sociologists of education focus on the divergent theories on the State in order to explain how political factors lead to state interventionist policies that serve to structure and shape the reproductive function of education in capitalist society. The general configurations of a Marxian approach to social change now have to be translated into a Marxian analysis of the educational system. This poses certain difficulties, since Marx himself dealt with public education in a very limited way. It is worth going through what he said about schooling. But in order to properly develop our analysis of education in modem capitalist societies, we have to turn to Marxist and nee-Marxist writers. In particular, we have to situate the analysis in the context of the discussion on theories of the State, a discussion which has been central to new development in Marxian thought. In spite of the agreement among Marxists about the importance of the State, there are significant differences among them as to what the State actually is, how it works, and what the relationship is between the State and capital. Therefore, we need to review and discuss the theories of the State which had been suggested by Lenin, Gramsci, Althusser and Poulantzas. It is not only that the most interesting debate today among Marxists revolves around the role of the State ; for practical reasons, any study of the educational system cannot be separated from some explicit or implicit analysis of the purpose and functioning of the government sector. Since power is expressed in part through society's political system, any attempt to develop a model of educational change should have behind it a carefully thought out theory of the State. Yet, even if we didn't believe that an educational system has something to do with power in a society, we would still be compelled to discuss government in understanding formal education : in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, education has been increasingly and primarily a function of the State. Through the analysis of four Marxists' theories of the State, we can arrive at some conclusions. The State of monopoly capitalist societies is not a given structure, it is an organization which has relative autonomy. The State is a kind of battlefield where social classes struggle each other to get power. Education cannot be seen merely as tools manipulated at will by the ruling class. It is another site where classes struggle to seek hegemony. which is a necessary condition to govern the State.