This chapter situates Switzerland’s education system within broader social and political shifts, including globalization, neoliberal governance, and labor-market pressures. It explores how schools have become central sites where competing language ideologies intersect. The chapter discusses how responsibilities for language education are distributed across cantons and local authorities, creating significant regional variation in language-of-instruction decisions, sequencing of foreign languages, and support for multilingual practices. Cantonal autonomy—long celebrated as a defining feature of Swiss federalism—has also led to uneven and sometimes fragmented approaches to language education, particularly in the teaching of national languages versus English. The chapter traces how schools navigate expectations to promote national cohesion while responding to demands for global competitiveness. Drawing on Spolsky and Shohamy, it describes how policy is enacted through curricula, assessment systems, and institutional routines that often privilege dominant languages and monolingual norms. Ultimately, the chapter argues that the Swiss education system embodies the broader paradox at the heart of Swiss multilingualism: the coexistence of policies about linguistic diversity with institutional practices that reinforce hierarchy and selectivity.