Abstract: There exist inherent defects and deficiencies in education policies, which result from the fol-lowing three constraint conditions:a) the limited ability of education policy to solve problems caused by the subject's limit of rationality; b) the inefficiency of education policy in response to complicated educational problems; c) the fragility of rigid education policy in coping with various problems of educational practice. In dealing with these inevitable defects, practitioners tend to adopt three passive patterns:confrontation, ostensi-ble obedience, and praising profitability. Meanwhile, there are three positive patterns:selective adaption, re-flective adaption, reconstructive adaption. Constructive criticism, constitutive criticism and foundational criti-cism are the three critical ways of education policy for researchers who have non-interest relation to education policy. Recognizing its imperfect feature helps improve education policy in a soberer, easier and more accessi-ble way.

Key words: education policy, defects in policy, policy response