In almost every dimension, South Africa has undergone dramatic changes since the end of apartheid. Public education in South Africa has been completely transformed from an amalgam of separate and highly unequal educational systems, defined in terms of the race and place of residence of students, into a unified system based on the principle of providing equal access to high quality education to all South Africans. This article traces the changes in education finance that have occurred since 1994, especially the decentralization of financial responsibility for primary and secondary education to nine new provincial governments, though most funding flows from the national government to the provinces. The author assesses the success of the government in meeting its constitutional mandate to provide all South Africans with a "basic education," paying particular attention to the challenges of (a) allocating adequate resources to schools serving the nation's historically disadvantaged students and (b) finding an appropriate mix of school fees paid by parents and public funds. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 70 footnotes.)