diff --git a/ast/parser.go b/ast/parser.go
index 31f09b2616..10dc088aaa 100644
--- a/ast/parser.go
+++ b/ast/parser.go
@@ -1616,6 +1616,9 @@ func (b *metadataParser) Parse() (*Annotations, error) {
 
 var errInvalidSchemaRef = fmt.Errorf("invalid schema reference")
 
+// NOTE(tsandall): 'schema' is not registered as a root because it's not
+// supported by the compiler or evaluator today. Once we fix that, we can remove
+// this function.
 func parseSchemaRef(s string) (Ref, error) {
 
 	term, err := ParseTerm(s)
diff --git a/loader/loader.go b/loader/loader.go
index 970a950edc..605f598c56 100644
--- a/loader/loader.go
+++ b/loader/loader.go
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ func loadSchemas(schemaPath string) (*ast.SchemaSet, error) {
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
-		ss.Put(ast.InputRootRef, schema)
+		ss.Put(ast.SchemaRootRef, schema)
 		return ss, nil
 
 	}
diff --git a/loader/loader_test.go b/loader/loader_test.go
index 9d52fce9f4..7ee26dcec8 100644
--- a/loader/loader_test.go
+++ b/loader/loader_test.go
@@ -765,7 +765,7 @@ func TestSchemas(t *testing.T) {
 				"foo/bar/baz.json": `{"type": "string"}`,
 			},
 			exp: map[string]string{
-				"input": `{"type": "string"}`,
+				"schema": `{"type": "string"}`,
 			},
 		},
 		{
@@ -802,7 +802,12 @@ func TestSchemas(t *testing.T) {
 						t.Fatal("unexpected error:", err)
 					}
 					for k, v := range tc.exp {
-						key := ast.MustParseRef(k)
+						var key ast.Ref
+						if k == "schema" {
+							key = ast.SchemaRootRef.Copy()
+						} else {
+							key = ast.MustParseRef(k)
+						}
 						var schema interface{}
 						util.Unmarshal([]byte(v), &schema)
 						result := ss.Get(key)