In the programming period 2007-2013, the Czech Republic was allowed to draw 26,7 billion euros from European funds. After joining the European Union in 2004, the Czech Republic gained an access to European funds by means of submitting individual or simplified projects within individual operational programmes. In the period 2007-2013, drawing funds from the European Union expanded to a great extent, but due to the initial project boom a great amount of projects failed to be successful as they were overwhelmed by the risks of project management. In the first part, risks of project management are introduced in general perspective which is universal for any other project. In the second part of the article, examples of risks in European funds are published. The last part of article deals "bad practices" in case of public education. Despite certain imperfections that can occur when drawing funds from the European Union, these funds represent an important financial tool for further growth of competitiveness of schools. The contribution is not only hypothetical, but also presents us with some relevant real-life examples from the sphere of public education in the Czech Republic.