Education opportunities for the population in the changing socio-economic context

TOpportunities for the people in the field of education are not just an indicator of achieved social progress, but also a factor that determines the path of future development. That is why the information about the accessibility of quality education for residents of Russia, which is on the difficult way from socialism to capitalism, is so important. Reforms in education were implemented during the whole post-Soviet period, but the most fundamental changes have occurred in recent years. The paper is based on the analysis of evolution of educational legislation in relation to each of the stages of education system, and it also uses the results of sociological research. The article shows the process of further exacerbating and institutionalization of inequality of educational opportunities for families with different incomes and places of residence. It proves that in the emerging socio-economic and institutional context the access to the full value education for a significant share of households is being increasingly restricted. It excludes the system of education from the list of effective tools for social mobility and aggravates the degradation of human capital of territories. As a result, socio-economic stagnation is conserved. Negative tendencies can be overcome, if the federal government reconsiders its point of view on social overhead costs. Nowadays such costs are considered as nonproductive and, because of that, they are "optimized" as much as possible. Also serious changes are needed in the inter-budgetary relations. Primarily, the government should put an end to the practice of shifting the burden of unbearable expenditure commitments to the regions, because this leads to the situation, when regional authorities in implementing even good ideas like raising the salaries of teachers - are often forced to use measures, that result in a reduction in the quality of education and the increase of budget debt. The state can find the funds, necessary to carry out more efficient social and regional policies, if it abandons the practice of accumulating unreasonably high volumes of proceeds from the sales of Russian energy resources in the so-called reserve funds.