The consultation document,"Quality School Education: Ways to Improve Performance," issued in 1996 by the Task Group on School Quality and School Funding, reveals certain assumptions about school quality that merit further analysis. The document is analyzed by identifying these assumptions and comparing them to the recommendations of W. Edwards Deming, a seminal figure in the global quality movement. The report is underpinned by ideas about goals and targets, the association of school funding with performance, competition, and recasting roles and redrawing relationships among various figures and elements found in Hong Kong schools and related organizations. From the Deming perspective, implementation of the ideas in the Task Group document will fail to improve the quality of education in Hong Kong. It is more likely, rather, that their implementation will result in a lower level of quality.