Worried that low educational achievement in the United State is beginning to hamper the economy, one venture capital association on Wednesday set up a multimillion-dollar fund to invest in ideas that would boost public school education.

The NewSchools K-12 Education Infrastructure Fund is a joint project of the National Venture Capital Association and an already established investment group called the NewSchools Venture Fund.

NewSchools, a nonprofit set up by Brook Byers and John Doerr, two of the founders of the legendary Menlo Park venture firm Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers, has been funding educational startups for years, including Oakland’s Monarch Academy and the Oakland Unified School District’s Teaching Fellows Program.