The text discusses the training senior managers of education in Chile, comparing their rules with the functions performed. This is an exploratory, qualitative study, based on semi-structured interviews applied to Regional Ministerial Secretaries of Education. The records provide insight into stated and implemented gaps, and thus identify critical points that need to be addressed at various levels. From this background, proposals of a new organization of education at the subnational level are formulated to guide and drive its redesign, which is a key policy objective in the modernization of the state administration.