This paper investigates how the education system in post-revolutionary Iran has played a role in regenerating political elites. Since 1979, the Islamic Republic has tried to reconstruct the education system with the aim of creating and expanding the next generation of functionaries and loyalists. In this regard, Ayatollah Khomeini initiated the Cultural Revolution because he feared “the training of the youth in the interests of West or East.” The main purpose of this policy was to purify the education system of Western culture and unite religious education with formal education. A critical component of the Cultural Revolution was the creation of Jahad-e Daneshgahi (Academic Jihad) and the Office for Strengthening Unity, as the exclusive political institutions that were active in the universities during the 1980s. Later, the Student Basij joined these organizations to promote “unity between seminaries (Hawza) and universities” and “the establishment of a great Islamic government.” Alongside these national organizations, specialized schools were founded with the mission of training elites and preparing the next generation of cadres for the Islamic Republic. Imam Sadegh University, Tarbiat Modares University, Mofid University, and the National Organization for the Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET) were among the main education centers designed to groom new elites based on the ideals and interests of the government. This paper examines the successes and failures of these institutions in socializing students and training elites for the political system. Did the majority of new political elites come from these institutions? To what extent did these individuals reflect and espouse the values and ideology of the Islamic Republic? This paper explores the background of these elites and traces their antecedents back to these institutions. The paper also shows that, as an unintended consequence, many of their students, trainees, and graduates rejected the dominant ideology of the state and ended up becoming social activists that opposed it. To conclude, this study argues that, in a complicated and contradictory fashion, the education system, on the one hand, has trained thousands of technocrats for the Islamic Republic, and, on the other hand, has constituted a primary site of resistance to the authoritarian tendencies of the state.