In the two years that the "Education" priority national project has been in the process of implementation, it has been found that in spite of its obviously abstract character in terms of strategy (a shortcoming that is characteristic of all four of the national projects), a flexible mechanism of state and civic administration is built into it. This gives reason to hope that by means of it, it will become possible to stop the degradation of education, to raise educational quality and accessibility for the broad strata of society, to improve the situation in the labor market, and, in the long run, to make the transition to the "knowledge economy," in which there will not be a single superfluous individual. Positive processes in the system of education were also revealed by mass and expert sociological surveys conducted in April and May 2007 in Tiumen oblast. Those who are best informed about the "Education" project are qualified specialists. These are mature individuals with a higher education, who understand its importance for society and for their children, and who tend to upgrade their own qualifications. People's level of knowledgeability has been found to range from 23.3 percent among those with an incomplete secondary education to 55.6 percent among those with a higher education. The following functional relation is noteworthy: level of knowledgeability about the national project rises as a function of their average wages and salaries, ranging from 40.6 percent among those with an average wage of less than 3,000 rubles to 47.8 percent among those whose average wage is 9,000 rubles; however, a higher average rate of earnings leads to a decline in that level. Also curious is that people in the countryside and raion centers show the highest interest in the implementation of the "Education" priority national project. The level of the respondents' positive expectations depends directly on their material capabilities. For example, the percentage of those with a positive outlook about the prospective development of the system of education in the oblast among those who rated their standard of living as "good" is substantially higher than the counterpart percentage among those who rated their standard of living as "poor" (72.7 percent compared to 40.4 percent). In the case of private entrepreneurs, the percentage of optimists is even higher--82.3 percent. The reason is obvious: a solid readiness to pay for a good education. (Contains 9 tables and 1 note.)