Not sure this belongs here, since it isn't a play test issue or a new rule proposition... the SRD rule in question wasn't reproduced in Alpha 3— but I think this is very important, and I would love a hint what's being done about it.
The SRD Magic Overview section is sorely lacking. It strikes me as one of the worst sections of the SRD: the author begins with a highly detailed breakdown of the first few schools, including some pretty obscure/unnoticed rule for abjuration, but more importantly language describing which spells belong in the school and more importantly useful subschools and their behavior.
This section must have been written very close to a deadline, though, because by the time it gets to Necromancy and Transmutation, we are reduced to a single ambiguous sentence. Transmutation is the single largest school of magic with the most disparate subschools, but all they have to say is: " Transmutation spells change the properties of some creature, thing, or condition. " They may as well have said: "Transmutation spells are spells."
If you want to clean up magic and spells without changing from the Vancian system, start here! Making new spells is one of the greatest joys of the system, and with some nice, clean guidelines (and subschools!) the whole system would be easier to grok, especially for new players. I know there were some contentious school switches from 3.0 to 3.5, and I was among those who complained.
Nothing needs changing— just give use clear and extensive language identifying the function of a school, take any group of spells that do the same thing at different levels and make a subschool out of them. A section on Essential spells (since some are more systemic than others) would also be welcome.
I've come to trust the Paizo about these kinds of problems, and I know just because it wasn't in the alpha doesn't mean it wasn't dealt with. Maybe I just needed to rant because I was on that page of the SRD *shrug*.