I wouldnt call stratification or hegemony "conspiracy theory",its based on empirical evidence.Ill paste a couple of my fav.quotes by different theorists (social,radical,education,etc.).If you want you can look up the authors.The Frankfurt school is something you might familar with if you are a phil.guy (Habermas,Ardorno,Horkheimer,etc.).

According to Bourdieu, it is:

?necessary to bury the myth of the ??school as liberating force,? guarantor of the triumph of ??achievement? over ??ascription,? of what is conquered over what is received, of works over birth, of merit and talent over heredity and nepotism, in order to perceive the educational institution in the true light of its social uses, that is, as one of the foundations of domination and of the legitimation of domination (Bourdieu, 1989, p.5)

"The critical question here is whose future, story, and interests does the school represent. .? Henry Giroux (2005)

?hegemonic culture depends not on the brainwashing of the masses but on the tendency of public discourse to make some forms of experience readily available to consciousness while ignoring or suppressing others. T.J.Jackson Lears