The purpose of the work was to determine the reasons for the loss by the education system of the function of forming human capital in the country, which manifests itself in the loss of the “education premium” by the employed population of the country. As result of the research, established that the most important factor-giving rise to educational problems is the ineffectiveness of management. In the education system, management based on outdated approaches and principles, which are characterized as an administrative and control style of management that has developed in the industrial economy and goes back to Taylorism, against the backdrop of limited funding. Numerous norms, standards, indicators and results of work, reports of educational institutions, subject to systematic control, are typical for the management of the education system. The practice-oriented approach implemented in education standards enhances the effect of obstacles on the path of innovative development during the transition to post-industrial economic structures. The educational system of modern Russia does not correspond to the possibility of solving the problem of developing the national economy. To bring the education system in line with modern requirements, a revision and im-provement of education policy is required.