States have become increasingly central actors in educational policy with the advent of performance-based accountability and market-oriented educational reforms (Anagnostopoulos, Rutledge, & Bali, 2013; Figlio & Ladd, 2008; National Research Council, 2011; Ravitch, 1995). In spite of this, there have been few studies that have examined policymaking at the state level. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the case of how one educational policy, the Michigan Public Education Finance Act of 2013 (PEFA), developed at the state level. This paper has a particular focus on the use of critical legal theory to examine hidden power structure embedded in the legislative legal system and apply this often-overlooked critical approach to education policy research.