Case study findings on the politics of public school choice in Minnesota are used to explore an arena perspective on how state governments might legislate controversial school restructuring initiatives. The initial conceptual model, which posits a shift from the subsystem arena to the macro arena as being fundamental to policy breakthroughs, proved to be too narrow. It ignored the innovative potential of the commission arena and particularly the leadership arena. Minnesota findings suggest that it is in the latter arena where strategically placed lawmakers can exploit their power resources to exert significant leverage on restructuring legislation for American public schools.