The market of educational services represents a socially oriented mechanism that ensures a constant link between the producers and consumers of economic goods in the sphere of education. For the purpose of guarding against negative effects of a purely market mechanism, it is supplemented by elements of state regulation. In other countries, the state plays an active role in the production of educational services, for the purpose of overcoming the "defects of the market"; in Russia, on the other hand, as it goes through the stage of transition to market relations, the reverse situation has come about: market reforms of the system of education have been needed in order to overcome the "defects of the state." In this article, the author states that, the transition to management autonomy on the part of state educational institutions was manifested, in particular, in the fact that they were granted the right to carry out financial and management activities independently for the purpose of accomplishing their charter missions, and that state property was turned over to their day-to-day management. Furthermore, the author states his opinion that entrepreneurship in the system of education is an innovative, creative, resourceful undertaking on the part of an educational institution, activity that is oriented toward the shaping and development of society's educational potential and, in this way, the achievement of social and economic effectiveness on the microlevel and the macrolevel. The author concludes that, under the conditions of the development of market relations in the system of education, therefore, points of application of entrepreneurial activity are manifested in all the areas of that activity, from the rendering of educational services per se to ensuring the effective functioning of the sector as a whole. (Contains 3 figures.)